4/12/2008 - Today's National Volunteer Week Highlights
AFS a Lifelong Learning Experience
My experience with AFS began while in high school in the 60’s, when the AFS student club was the largest club next to the sports pep club, and the class valedictorian was the student that represented our high school abroad each year and our high school of 3500 students hosted one AFS participant annually.
AFS was renewed to me in the 90’s when our youngest daughter (now 28) was inspired to apply for an AFS learning experience to Switzerland, and received an AFS sending scholarship from our local chapter were I continue to be a volunteer. Since that time we not only have learned more about ourselves as a family, but have a better understanding and acceptance of other cultures. We have also increased our family size by six students and families, and countries including: Brazil, France, Germany, Japan, and Russia. With our children now grown and independent, I am currently the liaison for a Chinese Visiting Teacher, as well as a student from Germany.
I will never cease to learn about our world through our AFS participants, about ourselves, as each year passes, and AFS learning experiences continue.
Elizabeth Leatham (National Council Member & Volunteer Northeast Region)
A Great Host Family Experience – Thanks to AFS Volunteers
I am having a great time with my host family and we have had many happy times together. Many of the funnier moments happened due to my poor English. My host Dad wrote down some of them for me:
One evening we were talking about personalities and Ale was trying to say she was a volcano in that at times she could just explode. Instead what she said was “I’m a Vulcan!”, to which I immediately raised up my right hand with the Vulcan ‘V’ sign from Star Trek and said, “Live Long and Prosper” while my wife grabbed the tops of her ears and pulled them up. We all laughed for a long time over that one. After dinner one evening, after text messaging a boy she liked who had not responded to her, she asked, “What is wrong with him?” I said, “Well, he’s a man and you can’t expect too much from him”. I heard “Amen!” but what she said was “Ah…Men” She often said, “You’re killing me” when she meant “You’re kidding me.” I would raise my arm up and make stabbing motions with an imaginary knife, to which we would all start laughing. One time when she was overjoyed, she said, “You Pee!”, when she meant to say “Whoopie!” On arriving home from school one day, Ale announced, “I’m going clean out my ‘behinder’”,
when she meant to say, “I’m going to clean out my binder.”
Alessia (AFS Participant from Italy hosted in Sierra San Joaquin Area Team)
Upon My Retirement – 30 Years of Reflection
This is my 30th and final year as an AFS volunteer. My decision to retire from the student program at the end of this cycle is one I’ve made gradually and with some misgivings. But I know it’s the right decision for me at this time in my life. Reflecting upon the 30 years has given me an opportunity to remember the great AFS students and teachers, host families, school personnel, other volunteers and AFS staff with whom I’ve had the privilege of working.
I think back to the year I became Area Rep in 1982. I had agreed to help with a mid-winter orientation. The day before the event, I received a call from the then Area Rep. “I’m not going to be able to make it to the weekend; I’m in the hospital, and likely to be here a while.” Wow! Kids arriving the next day! Despite the short notice, things went well, other volunteers pulled together to make it all happen.
So many organizational changes have taken place over the last 30 years:
These changes haven’t always been easy. But adapting and accepting change is one of the best outcomes of being part of AFS. I believe I’ve grown personally as I’ve helped to implement some of these changes.
As a volunteer, I’ve been Chapter President, Liaison, director of arrival orientations for students and teachers, Area Team Chair, Volunteer Recruiter/Trainer, Regional and National Council Reps and have participated on several committees, chaperoned a group of students to Switzerland, and had the pleasure a few years ago of going to Iceland and Russia to assist in training volunteers. My passion has always been the AFS Visiting Teacher program, and I’m continuing with that for one more year.
I can’t imagine anything else I might have done for 30 years that would have been more satisfying and rewarding, and yes – challenging. Our troubled world needs AFS and other programs that bring people together in friendship. My best wishes to all of the volunteers who are carrying on this wonderful work.
AFS will always be part of my life. My e-mail address is AFSCathie”at”aol.com, my license plate says AFS BUS. And, though it can’t be seen, my heart is stamped with the letters AFS.
Cathie Currin (Global Educators Volunteer – Eastern NY Area Team)