View Content #26026

From Tricia Melnik of the AFS Columbia Pacific Team:

 

What’s AFS? AFS has been a nonprofit leader in student exchange for more than 70 years, since its founding by WWI and WWII volunteer ambulance drivers, with a mission to foster peace through intercultural understanding. We still pass peace forward, and, with 5,000 volunteers across the country, we are still rooted in service. In 2017, we sent almost 1,000 American high school students abroad to 50 countries and welcomed over 2,000 international students from 80 countries to the US to study and live with host families.  

 

What’s new? Coming up November 12 – 16 is International Education Week, an initiative from the Department of State promoting intercultural learning and understanding! This is a perfect time for your school to emphasize global competence, the ability to communicate across cultures and navigate cultural contexts effectively. To help you and your colleagues teach these essential skills, we at AFS-USA have developed and curated the following resources and lesson plans:

 

• Educator Toolkit (https://www.afsusa.org/educators/teachers-toolbox/) – lesson plans looking at various subjects through an intercultural cultural lens.

• Project: Change Resources (https://www.afsusa.org/project-change/learn/resources/) – introduce the UN Sustainable Development Goals (https://www.afsusa.org/project-change/learn/) and encourage students to apply for a full scholarship to work toward the goals abroad.

 

Please don’t hesitate to let me know if you have any questions or concerns! I would be more than happy to set up a meeting or schedule a presentation in your school for your students.  This can happen outside of International Education Week so don’t hesitate to contact me.

 

Sincerely,

Tricia Melnik

Assistant Team Development Specialist

AFS Columbia Pacific Team

www.afsusa.org/team/columbia-pacific

pmelnik@afsusa.org

646-381-3329 work

503-459-3697 cell