Planning an Orientation for AFSers Coming Home
Why isn’t anyone coming to our pizza party?!

“Coming back was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done.” So said ½ of the students in a study by Lisa Chappell, former staff member of AFS Chile, who completed a research project on the re-entry experience of study abroad students for her degree at the School for International Training where she now works. Yet also more than half of the students surveyed “didn’t turn to anyone” for support in dealing with their re-entry issues.

AFS volunteers may also find it difficult to attract returning students to a re-entry orientation. Why don’t they come to the pizza parties or other welcome home events? Students answering Lisa’s survey mostly reported being too busy to attend, and/or not being interested in the type of activity being offered.

Providing reentry support to today’s returning AFS participants can be both rewarding and challenging. It may not be easy to know how to attract students to attend events you organize for them. However, reentry support should not be over looked as it is essential to avoid having a student come back from their time abroad and say “That was awesome!!” and move on with their lives.

In general, returning participants come back:
• Pumped up to do something with their new knowledge and skills
• Want to share their experience with others
• Want to find ways to bring abroad experience back home life
• Experiencing some “cognitive dissonance,” or in other words, feeling that certain things they grew up believing might not necessarily be true

They are also often they faced with social and parental pressure to return to the way of life they were leading before going abroad.

Planning the Orientation Activities
Some planning for re-entry orientation needs to take place even before the students go aboard! When AFS participants feel close ties with the other AFSers who went aboard with them, they are more likely to want to reconnect with these friends and share experiences, and more likely to feel the necessary trust that will allow them to feel comfortable with the group while addressing their re-entry needs and concerns.

Planning also may include contacting the AFS participants while they are still abroad to let them know of the events planned for their return.

Most import is to make the experience meaningful for the returnees. The relationship you have already established with them is critically important, but the content must also address their particular re-entry needs.

Coming Home – the Journey Starts Here
Lisa Chappell provides guidelines from her research on what returning students might need at different times.

First Month: Home Doesn’t Feel Like Home Anymore.
• a social event
• to get reacquainted with home
• a suggested readings list
• individual contact and support

Third Month: Returning to School
• to make a formal presentation about their AFS experience
• to participate in a photo / essay / video contest
• to find opportunities to use their new language skills

Six months to one year: Recognizing the new me and Wanting to do something.
• to make new connections in the local community
• to learn about volunteer opportunities
• to consider intercultural studies and careers
• to gain insights into their own culture
• to find ways to stay involved with AFS

Lisa Chappell now works at SIT Study Abroad, a program of World Learning, in Brattleboro, VT, USA

Resources for Parents and Participants

AFS Orientation Handbook on Line
Orientation Handbook for Youth Exchange Programs
Published in 1989, this handbook has been out of print for several years. Recently it has been scanned and posted on the web by a free service from Scribd. You can use the web link above, or view the embedded version below. For a full screen view, use the enlarge button at the top right hand corner of the window showing the book cover. You will then be able to zoom in or out on each page.

Re-Entry Needs
Here are some of the common needs for students returning home that should be included in the re-entry support activities organized by the home communities:

Home doesn’t feel like home anymore. Reverse culture shock is a well-known experience when students have changed their perceptions while abroad. Relationships with parents and friends can feel strange. Even speaking their own language can feel awkward, and few people seem to understand, least of all the returnees themselves.

Returning to school. Depending on the age and situation of the AFS returnee, returning home might mean waiting several months until the opening of the next school term, joining a class a year or more younger than you, or heading directly to a new college or university in another city. Even those who rejoin their classmates at the same school they left are likely to find it difficult to re-integrate into the classroom.

Recognizing the new me. Whether professional, personal, or academic, expressions of what they learned during their AFS experience need to be incorporated in their lives back home. Returnees need to recognized what they have learned and how they have changed.

Wanting to do something. AFS returnees come home with a new awareness and new energy ready to be put to use. Many are looking for opportunities to bring a new cultural perspective to issues at home, or to engage in social or political action.

Re-entry topics on AFS Intercultural Eyes