Program Reviews

I applied for the AFS Global Prep Kenya Trip the moment I first heard about it. I knew it would be a great experience but little did I know how much it would really change my life.

This is not just a fun summer trip where you see animals on safari. No, it is so much more than that. This program immerges you into the Kenyan culture, introduces a new and completely unfamiliar world, and shows you the wilds of Africa all at the same time. It’s not just about feeding giraffes or petting baby elephants, it’s about learning the real ness of animal conservation in Africa today. This program showed me the realities of threatened species and the conservation efforts that are helping to save them. This program lets you interact and meet conservationalists from around the world who dedicate themselves to saving the world’s most iconic species. Aside from the animals, living with a host family in a country like Kenya is something I will cherish forever. It allowed me to truly understand the Kenyan way of life. I made some incredible friends that I consider to be my family members. We still keep in close touch even after two years apart.

Going back isn’t just a ‘maybe,’ it’s a 100 percent certainty. I am determined and hopeful that I can one day return to Kenya and reunite with my new friends and family. I highly recommend this program to anyone who has wanderlust, anyone who wants to experience an entirely new culture, and anyone who wants to change the way they see the world.

I had a very unfortunate start to my year abroad in Italy. I was placed in a family that was not only an hours bus ride from my high school, and all of my friends, but they also treated me poorly. I was expected to cook for the husband when I got back from school, and I was unable to eat until he returned from work. I was also cleaning the house on a regular basis. I talked to my designated person, and she told me that I needed to deal with it. So, I did. I spent another two months without a fuss, and when things did not improve, I went to the program leaders. They told me that this was just Italian culture, and that I needed to deal with it. By this time I was sick and scared, and having serious depression. I was on the verge of going home. I called my parents one night crying so hard, that they were afraid for me. They contacted AFS USA, and raised hell. I don't like to have my parents do things for me. I like to solve my own problems, but I was very lucky to have them on my side. AFS USA finally got in touch with the people around me and said that a change had to happen. The people in Italy however, refused to move me without a family, and refused to look for a new one. I ended up finding my new host family myself through a class that I was in. I would like to say, that not everyone in the area was at fault. There was a nice older couple helping AFS that were wonderful to me, and even hosted me in the time between my family change. With their help, and the help of my new family, the last four months of my trip were the greatest of my life. I grew, and was able to finally learn the language and experience the culture. I do not think that AFS meant for me to be in the situation I was in. I am afraid that my lack of language skills and overall misunderstanding made the situation worse. If they had been able to see what I was going through, I am sure they would have been better able to help me. Or at least I hope so, because I don't want any other student to go through what I went through during my time in those first 5 months.

Spontaneous and craving the life of a global citizen, I set out on my study abroad to Germany. I am fortunate to have been on very many vacations, and I’ve loved every one of them, but have always felt I needed something more. Living abroad was the “more” I always needed.

Without knowing more than a sentence in German, my flight to a land I had never been took off. I slept in a bed I never had, in a house I had walked into for the first time, owned by a family I did not know would become my own.

I could tell you the amazing parts; almost everything was amazing. It shaped who I am today. Living one hour from my dream city of Berlin, making my best friends in the world who don’t speak my native language, experiencing a completely different culture, language, and foods... but living abroad does not come without its challenges. Being an american living in a foreign country, I had to find a balance between defending my country and explaining how we could do better. I lived through every single day trying to not have a panic attack when people got frustrated with me for having no idea what they were saying. I even went through a breakup while on exchange with nearly no friends at the time, feeling like no one understood me. I could’ve given up, but I didn’t.

I rose from my experiences. I challenged myself everyday to stop speaking English, and one day, I finally could. I overcame my incredible fear of being alone and vulnerable, and traveled alone hours many times a month to visit friends or explore new places. I found the strength inside of me I never knew was there. I gained so much responsibility, patience, and such a strong spirit of adventure that drove me to plan 3 vacations when I came back from exchange, which I am working everyday to pay for myself.

Through all the ups and downs, through my triumphs in school and with my host family to finally not missing my train, to solving problems in a language that was completely new to me, I did it. I did it and I would suffer again one million times to gain what I gained out of my incredible experience. An experience that shaped me entire life, myself as a person and my future.

I’m so glad I went with AFS. They were very helpful along the way even when problems came up from travel to host family issues. I really learned a lot and without this experience I never would have met some of my life long friends or gotten the courage to travel as much as I have. Learning Portuguese makes me more versatile and flexible. It also helped pave the way for me to later on learn Italian through a separate program in college and additionally to understand Spanish now that I live in Arizona and am surrounded by Spanish speakers. Without programs like this I never would have gone to South America and experienced the rich and amazing culture and people that live there. Going to Brazil has changed me and opened my eyes to so many possibilities and opportunities.

My experience in New Zealand was amazing! I had a great host family in a really nice house. I love how everyone in the community welcomed me and frequently stopped to chat or see how u was doing. Their were soooo many opportunities to travel the country and it was the best experience of my life. Being relatively shy and unsocial, New Zealand was a big change, I learned to trust people and give every chance a fair go! My school was amazing and I will never forget my experience, I still am in contact with my friends, family, and some of my teachers in New Zealand!

The AFS France program is without a doubt life-changing. The wealth of lingual, cultural, and social knowledge blended with the new perspectives of French ideology helped me grow as a person and benefits my future endeavors. Throughout my time in France I was faced with many challenges as any exchange student does. Immersing yourself into a new family, school, language and culture is a very daunting task. From the time I entered the program and stepped off the plane back in America the support from the staff and students of AFS was detrimental to my enjoyment of the program. They would help with the problems I would have, the ideas we would craft, and even the petty drama every teenager faces. The experiences I had were meaningful to not just me, but many friends and family back home. For example, my great-grandfather (my grandfather's dad) fought and died for the liberation of France in WWII. I was able to visit his grave at the Brittany American Cemetery and Memorial in St. James, France with my host family. This meant so much to my grandpa back home that every time I see him he thanks me and my host family for making it a point in my AFS experience. The memories I made in France through AFS are something that I will cherish undoubtedly for the rest of my life.

When I had decided to board a flight to Frankfurt and live with a family I had never met before, I was more than ecstatic. The unknown, for the first time ever, seemed more exciting than anything else I could have looked forward to! It is a year that I laughed, cried, while even doing both at the same time. I fell in love with the city of Augsburg, met lifelong friends, and made everlasting memories that I reference in my day-to-day life, now two years later. Thanks to my exchange experience with AFS, I made my way to study at a university in Germany and learned a second language, and I am thankful everyday for the support of my Host Family, my exchange friends and all the other people I met along the way.
Doing an exchange is an experience that affects every aspect of one's life: I have put on a new lense and I view the world more mature and more aware than I had been two years ago. Sometimes it can be a difficult adjustment, particularly when I experience culture shock with the culture I grew up with and confuse both languages, but stepping out of my comfort-zone has been, hands-down, the most influential decision of my life.
For those who are considering doing an exchange, just do it! As long as you push forward, aim to be the best version you can be and take it every day at a time, you will gain skills and experiences that you can only be proud of, and with amazing people from all over the world!
-The world is your playground

I am in constant “awww” everyday when I think about what an amazing adventure/experience I have accomplished. I can see how it has changed me into a more worldly and cultured person everyday. I look back in my experience with Iceland and I wouldn’t change it for the world. From the moment I landed on the small island with 30 other students I had already created life long friendships. My family was so incredibly open, loving and treated me like a true family member. It is an amazing feeling to know that I am loved all over the world by not only exchange student friends but a bigger web of an exchange student family. My family tree had grown to so many amazing countries and I can’t wait to expand the branch and grow more leaves as I grow up into an amazing and worldly person. Thank you AFS-USA and AFS-ISL!!

I spent my junior year of high school abroad in India through AFS. As the title says, it was the best experience of my life. I can't even picture myself in my old body & soul. I'm a new person thanks to my Indian adventure.

While my experience with AFS was pretty good overall, I do know some people from the same cohort who just didn't click well with the staff at all. There was also a case or two of kids who ended up in horrible host families and were miserable without receiving any help. These scenarios are mostly chapter-specific. Whenever kids tried to contact national office they were given a reply that basically told them to talk to their chapters, which had already yielded nothing, so an infinite loop occurred.

Overall, I did love the program though. It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Good or bad, you'll change for the better.

My experience was unique because I was lucky enough to have host parents that have hosted many other students before in their house and my host dad was an English teacher, so communication wasn't a big issue. I know many participants whose host parents did not know any English and it was difficult to communicate because of the language barrier. However, Thai people are very friendly and many of them are willing to learn English to try and talk to you because depending on where you live, many of them have limited interaction with foreigners. I live in New York City and am fortunate enough to be able to encounter people of many different cultures, but then having to live in a small town was a bit of a shock for me at first and I had to adjust to it. From this program it made me more open-minded and adaptable because I was able to see and live in a world very different from my own. I learned how to cook thai food, do a traditional thai dance, speak thai and most importantly I made friends that even now I still talk to. One of my favorite memories was when these girls from my class called me at 7 in the morning on a Saturday and told me to get ready because they were coming over to pick me up on their motorcycles to go and feed catfish. I was confused by what they meant but we literally bought bread and went to this temple that had a giant pond of catfish and fed them bread. Afterwards, they drove by these patches of rice fields and sat by the water and had a picnic. I remember that it was day that made me feel like I wasn't really an outsider anymore. It is important when studying abroad to keep an open-mind and not have too many expectations because that could ruin your experience. You should also never compare your experience to someone else's because everyone will be going through something different. And also try to take advantage of your time there because by the time the program ends you won't want to leave and there will be so many things you wish you had done.