4/4/2008 - Opening hearts, opening homes

By Toriano L. Porter

Brenda Stoll of Independence knows a thing or two about volunteering her time.

Stoll, the Hosting Coordinator for the American Field Service Intercultural Program’s KC Area Team, also knows that more than 70 families in the area that are hosting foreign exchange students this academic year have made a difference in the volunteer sector as well.

The program, better known as AFS-USA, is a 60-year-old foreign exchange program that originated as a volunteer ambulance service in France during World War I. Stoll coordinates local exchange efforts, screening host family applicants and foreign students applying to enter the program.

“I get to look at the kids’ file when they first come, and try to find families that would fit good with their personalities and interests and try to place them,” said Stoll, a dental assistant off and on for the last 25 years.

Stoll said 70 families served as host this year in the Kansas City area. Last year, there were 76 families that hosted a foreign student.

“Our biggest challenge is finding enough families to host,” Stoll said, adding she and her husband of 28 years, Rodney, served as a host family in 2000. “We have volunteers in each school district usually. Everybody works on finding host families. I’m just the coordinator.”

Stoll said her family got involved after AFS needed a replacement family for a student from the Netherlands. Stoll said that experience proved why the AFS is such a successful program.

“We still keep in touch with her,” Stoll said of the Netherlands student. “She just got married last year. I was unable to attend, but we sent our daughter. It really opens the world and a lot of opportunities you’ve never thought of.”

Stoll said her passion for being a AFS volunteer comes from getting to know different students from varying parts of the world.

“Being a volunteer, I’ve met so many more (foreign exchange students). I tell the kids when they get here, we as volunteers, are their extended family.”

AFS-USA is one of the largest volunteer-based organizations of its kind in the world with more than 30,000 volunteers worldwide and more than 8,000 in the United States. The organization sends more than 1,500 students to more than 40 countries each year; awards more than $1.5 million in financial aid and scholarships annually; places students from abroad with more than 2,800 U.S. families and is supported by more than 6,000 AFS volunteers in the U.S. and 30,000 volunteers around the world.

This article was originally published here.