Giving Back: An AFS Returnee's Experience in the AFS Archives

In the summer of 2003, when I was seventeen, I boarded a plane to New Zealand as an AFS Participant and came back with rich experiences, lifelong friends, and memories that will never be forgotten. Seven years later, I found myself back with AFS as an intern at the Archives of the American Field Service and AFS Intercultural Programs (AFS Archives), working to arrange and describe the American Field Service Fellowships for the French Universities Collection. This project has been made possible by a grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission.

This collection includes material related to the scholarship program established in December 1919 in an effort to continue the peaceful ties between the United States and France after the war. The fellowships, awarded in honor of AFS Ambulance Drivers who had died during the war, funded American and French students on the graduate level for advanced study.

Although the goal of 127 fellowships per year was never reached, 222 fellowships were awarded between 1919 and 1952, when the program was discontinued. The scholarships were awarded to a number of students who went on to very distiguished careers, including Grayson Kirk (1928-1929 fellowship), who was the president of Columbia University during the student protests of 1968; and Maurice Perouse (1936-1937 fellowship), who became a financial leader in Europe.

To make the collection available for research, I surveyed the content, which revealed organizational records related to administration of the fellowships, correspondence, photographs,newspaper clippings, and personal material of individuals affiliated with the program. After the survey, I applied basic preservation techniques to the material, which included the removal of corroded paper clips as well as the transfer of material into acid-free folders and boxes. The final and most important task in arranging the collection was the development of a finding aid, which is a written description and partial inventory that places the material within the historical context of AFS and assists researchers in gaining intellectual access to the material. To view the finding aid of the AFS Fellowships for French Universities Collection, please go to (www.afs.org/archon).

As an AFS Returnee, my work in the AFS Archives has been a wonderful opportunity to give back to the organization and to be immersed in one aspect of its fascinating history.

--Johnamarie Macias, Fall 2010 and Spring 2011 AFS Archives Intern

Photograph caption: Nicole Milano (left) and Johnamarie Macias (right) standing among the acid-free boxes housing the archival collections, March 2011

Posted July 26, 2011.  This article first appeared in the Spring 2011 edition of the AFS Janus, a publication of the AFS Archives