5/11/2005 - AFS in Costa Rica Celebrates its 50th Anniversary:
AFS in Costa Rica celebrated 50 years of service and commitment to intercultural learning and exchanges. In the month of April, 2005, this dynamic AFS Partner marked the important milestone with a variety of events. The celebrations honored the history and numerous accomplishments of an AFS organization that in 50 years has sent over 3,800 Costa Rican participants around the globe and that has hosted more than 5,000 AFS participants from all corners of the AFS system.
Costa Rica was the host of the Caribbean-Andean region meeting on their anniversary year. Fifty-three volunteer leaders, board members and Partner directors from the region met in San Jose in April. This region includes 12 partners and this was the ninth consecutive meeting of this kind. AFS Costa Rica received guest representatives from AFS in Japan, Germany, Brazil and AFS International. The topic of this year’s meeting was “Program Growth”, a timely issue in a region that is eager to continue to explore ways to expand its reach and to strengthen its volunteer base. Participants in the meeting were honored by the presence of Mr. Arthur Howe, a former AFS ambulance driver and past president of AFS International who shared his vision for AFS’s future with the meeting participants.
The celebrations concluded with a Gala Ceremony at the Melico Salazar Theater attended by nearly 600 persons and with a Gala Dinner attended by representatives of the Costa Rican Ministry of Education; Ms. Mauren Clark, who represented the mayor of San Jose; AFS International Board of Trustee members Floria Arias and Juan Luis Barrios and AFS returnees, among many other distinguished guests and friends of AFS.
Sami Gonzalez, a Costa Rican AFS exchange student to the U.S in 1966 had the following to say about the Gala Ceremony and about his experience with AFS:
“The ceremony was very emotional. I personally felt moved during the minute of silence in memory of those who have departed; my father who with limited resources, did everything he could to make our AFS exchange year possible; my brother Rodolfo who was the first one in our family to leave the country and who came back full of new experiences and novelties, and my host parents from Wisconsin in the United States. I also remembered my daughter Natalia and her boyfriend Fritz, both now in Germany and both AFS returnees and close to getting married! So many wonderful experiences; I always say that AFS marked our lives positively and forever, it opened our minds and hearts. I hope we can continue transmitting the message of peace and tolerance that AFS taught all of us.”
AFS in Central America began its operations in 1955. Costa Rica was the first country in the region to send two students to the U.S. and it hosted its first AFS participants in 1961. Beginning in 1964, Costa Rica experienced considerable growth in participant numbers when it sent 80 students abroad on intercultural exchanges. In 1971, hosting and sending programs became truly multinational with the addition of countries other than the U.S. Today, AFS Costa Rica sends nearly 150 Costa Rican students to 20 countries in five continents and hosts nearly 300 participants each year.
Congratulations to AFS Costa Rica on its anniversary and best wishes for its continued contributions to the excellence of AFS intercultural exchanges!
In the photo: Rolando Araya, Partner Director of AFS Costa Rica (left) and Guillermo Barquero, National Chairperson, AFS Costa Rica (right) with 2005 AFS full scholarship recipients.
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