Change the world by changing minds. Help AFSers and your community appreciate and celebrate cultural differences.
AFS transforms volunteers into global citizens and changemakers
We call that the #AFSeffect!
Create change
Create community
Join a global community of change-makers and people like you. Serve as a change agent in your community.
Create yourself
Develop practical cross-cultural skills and find your place as a global citizen, leader and changemaker in your community.
Create future
Lead diverse teams at home or around the world and promote inclusive societies for sustainable development.
How to become an AFS Volunteer
Send an inquiry
To ensure the safety of and support to AFS students, all volunteers must be registered. Our application process is thorough and provides what we need to make volunteers successful. Feel stuck? We’re here to help.
Meet AFS volunteers
Find out more about us and what volunteering with AFS is all about. Then together we can identify a suitable role for you based on your skills and expertise, and what you want to learn and do.
Get trained
Receive basic training to be an AFS Volunteer to prepare for an engaging, meaningful volunteer assignment.
Begin your journey
You will have an amazing time no matter what you do for AFS. You’ll meet interesting students, make friends from around the world, work with passionate volunteers and gain intercultural and other skills that will last a lifetime.
Every volunteer makes a huge impact at AFS
Support
- Help host families get to know their AFS student
- Be a liaison for host schools
- Introduce international students to your community
- Check in with students or host families regularly to monitor programs
Plan
- Program Orientations
- Participant Selections
- Parent Orientations
- Home Visits
- Promotional Activities
Train
- Guide AFSers through intercultural learning journeys
- Introduce students to your country’s culture
- Facilitate learning through creative activities
- Share your own global experience and cultural insights
Manage & Lead
- Help others learn how to respect, appreciate and value other cultures
- Serve on funtional teams, committees and board
- Learn how to manage local volunteers
- Inspire others to serve their community
Engaging with my community; meeting people from around the world
“Joining my local group of AFS volunteers gave me the opportunity to develop many skills, such as how to work in a team and interact with people from different backgrounds. As an AFS volunteer, I am more engaged in my community and I meet people from all over the world. Helping students, teachers and families embark on intercultural learning adventures makes me appreciate the importance of world peace and intercultural understanding.”
—Marcela Vazquez, AFS Argentina volunteer
Challenge yourself while supporting others
By volunteering with AFS you can:
- Work closely with experienced volunteers to find creative solutions
- Take on challenging situations for personal growth
- Polish practical skills to gain a competitive edge at school or work
- Learn how to make better decisions and solve problems
- Develop leaderships skills you will use forever
AFS Mission
AFS is an international voluntary, non-governmental, non-profit organization that provides intercultural learning opportunities to help people develop the knowledge, skills and understanding needed to create a more just and peaceful world.
AFS Hong Kong Volunteer Teams
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Parents Team
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Support Team
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Annual Giving Advisory Committee Team
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Recruitment Team
Empowering people of all ages to respect and appreciate differences
AFS is an inclusive community of global citizens committed to fostering intercultural learning as a powerful peace-building tool. Through AFS study abroad and changemaking programs, our volunteers help students, young adults, families and others take their first steps to becoming global citizens.
Resources and Good Reads
Volunteer Voices
This volunteer-driven blog is a platform where AFSers exchange ideas about their local and global changemaking and social impact activities. At the start of every dream, change and impact, there is a good story.
Connect: Intercultural Insights for Global Citizens
This digital magazine explores intercultural and global citizenship education, voluntarism and social impact, through articles, interviews, and learning tools created by respected thought leaders and experts.
AFS Perspectives: Helping the world learn to live together
Written by AFS experts from around the world, this blog champions diverse perspectives about culture and education, inspiring readers to become intercultural leaders of their communities.
Intercultural Learning (ICL) for AFS & Friends
Series of insightful and concise essays on key intercultural concepts based on research and practical experiences. The series is produced by AFS education experts for anyone studying about or working with intercultural topics.
The Volunteers: Americans Join World War I, 1914—1919
This Curriculum for secondary school educators takes a unique approach to volunteerism, intercultural competence and global citizenship education, since the volunteer efforts of young people during World War I until today.