AFS Intercultural Programs is pleased to announce the January/February/March/April 2013 issue of AFS Intercultural Link Newsletter volume 4, issue 1 – Global Edition, which can be shared with everyone interested in learning more about intercultural education.

The AFS Intercultural Link News Magazine is the quarterly magazine on intercultural learning in the AFS Network. The magazine features content shared by the Intercultural Learning Work Group as well as other AFS Partners and guest writers, including information on trends in intercultural education, interviews with experts in the field and overviews of upcoming and previous conferences.

Tasks related to this fellowship include:

• Supporting the Education team’s communications and media strategy: internal stakeholder communications as well as working on an external media plan that includes social/digital media (www.afs.org/blog/icl, our digital library, Facebook), conferences, etc.
• Managing the AFS Intercultural Link News Magazine: coordinating article submissions with authors from around the world, writing (as appropriate), editing and proof reading articles, contributing to design and layout, finalizing production and distributing to our global readership.
• Plus additional responsibilities related to education and intercultural learning in AFS as a part of a team comprised of fun and passionate people who work to help people improve interactions across cultures.

Skills: For this fellowship, candidates should:

• Have strong communications skills from strategy development to content creation (especially writing) to production (digital and otherwise);
• Have excellent planning and organizational skills with high attention to detail;
• Be highly creative, solutions-oriented, and pro-active;
• Have basic or better design sensibilities & layout skills;
• Be technology-savvy and able to work in various online and digital environments;
• Be interested in intercultural communications, global skills development and/or international relations and education;
• Be able to work both independently and as a part of a collaborative team;
• Have excellent spoken *and* written English skills (fluency two or more languages preferred);
• Familiarity with AFS or intercultural exchange programs a plus, but not required.

The fellowship is full-time for a commitment of 9 to 12 months. It is based at AFS Intercultural Programs’ offices in NYC, covers some expenses and provides a stipend.

Intercultural Link Newsletter Magazine

If you meet these requirements and are interested in applying for the fellowship, please e-mail AFS International at icl@afs.org. Provide a brief description of yourself, examples of how you meet the listed requirements for this fellowship, your motivations for applying for this fellowship, and what you could bring to this fellowship. In addition, please attach a current resume and two writing samples in the form of a newsletter article and/or blog entry.

We regret we cannot reply to all inquiries.

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.

Everyone who participated in the IDD made wonderful contributions to furthering the awareness of intercultural learning. As well, many stayed connected through IDD’s facebook page, which is where the winners of the photo and video contest were announced. Congratulations to the winners from AFS Hungary and AFS Russia!

Watch the best video and see the best picture on the IDD facebook page!

In 1985, the United Nations declared 5 December as International Volunteer Day, to formally recognize the millions of people around the world who participate in volunteer activities and make visible their contributions on the local, national, and international levels. In celebration of this year’s International Volunteer Day, Secretary General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, has shared this message:

“Founded on the values of solidarity and mutual trust, volunteerism transcends all cultural, linguistic and geographic boundaries. By giving their time and skills without expectation of material reward, volunteers themselves are uplifted by a singular sense of purpose.”

AFS also extends its heart-felt thanks and appreciation to all of its 43,905 active volunteers, who dedicate their time, energy, and passion to AFS in so many ways! We invite you to view the below video from AFS’s President and CEO, Vincenzo Morlini, as well as visit the AFS Intercultural Programs website today for special information related to International Volunteer Day.

Happy International Volunteer Day!

This year’s conference took place in Moscow, Russia on the 18^th of August, and was held at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations. It is one of the three conferences that together make up the AISEC International Congress, an international event to plan projects for social and economic development. At the Global Youth Voice event, two AFS staff members had the opportunity to take a more active role and act as facilitators for one of the sessions.

Tom McLeod, an AFS returnee (Australia 2000-2001) and current Intern at the AFS Russia office in Moscow, along with Nonna Kovrizhnykh, Partner Director of AFS Russia, and Organisational Development Coordinator Natalia Zakharova facilitated a session on Intercultural Dialogue and Tolerance. The 10-day conference hopes to foster a positive global impact in the way youth collaborate and interact, and aims to build a global perspective for future generations.

Roeland, a Belgian non-profit company promoting language skills in youth, seems to agree. In cooperation with AFS International, Roeland and AFS Partners in Argentina, China, Finland and Switzerland, provided the first group of students to participate in a full English language immersion camp that carried an intercultural component in the United Kingdom this summer.

The aim of this pilot was to test alternative ways of delivering short language programs with an extra focus on intercultural learning, while also being targeted toward a younger age group. Sixteen AFSers between the ages of 13-16 spent 12 days with 50 Belgian students in Sutton Valence, England to gain both linguistic and cultural knowledge. Apart from participating in intensive English language lessons, there were a number of activities, workshops and sport opportunities focusing on ICL, a trip to London and various daily themes such as British Day, Rhythm and Rhyme Day or Fame day. Throughout the camp, students had to follow a very strict “English-only!” rule.

Belgian and AFS Student Participants

Three very dedicated AFS volunteers: Jens Poulsen (AFS Switzerland), Sonja Gustafsson (AFS Finland) and Meng Zhou (AFS China) took charge in bringing the intercultural learning component into action, helped to deal with support issues throughout the camp and supported various other activities at the camp. The work of these volunteers showed how cooperation with like-minded organizations can help us to further the AFS mission of providing intercultural learning opportunities.

AFS International is now in the process of evaluating this pilot program in the hopes of using lessons learned to design a format for possible future collaboration. In the meantime, we hope that this was an opportunity for the almost 70 young students to get a taste of the life-long intercultural learning path, one that has inspired them to explore further avenues with AFS programs and other language-learning organizations.

AFS-USA, AFS Indonesia, AFS Malaysia and the US Embassy in Hanoi, Vietnam have cooperated with GNG for a media literacy project called the Global Connections: one LENS program. This program is sponsored through the State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Through this project, opportunities were offered to students and educators from Indonesia, Malaysia, the United States, and Vietnam to develop their media skills and to get to know each other better through working towards a common goal. The students met online (through video conferences and social networking), and later also in person. The project ended with a local media festival, where students had the opportunity to showcase their public service announcements or digital stories. On the Youtube channel below, you can find videos that were taken during the completion of this project.

This cooperation of AFS and the Global Nomads Group was a big success. It has become more and more common for us, especially for young people, to connect to others via online tools and video conferences. AFS and the Global Nomads Group have pioneered in the area of facilitating youth exchange using these tools, and their positive and very successful experience lets us hope that there is more to come in this area.

Originally an ambulance service that was active during both of the World Wars, AFS, or American Field Service at the time, rescued wounded soldiers from the front lines, regardless of their nationality, and brought them to a hospital to be treated. Soon after the end of the Second World War, AFS changed its focus to become an exchange program working to increase global peace and international understanding. Today, AFS still upholds intercultural interconnectedness as a standard practice as it provides intercultural learning experiences to a wide range of audiences. To learn more about AFS’s rich past, visit the AFS Archives online, or in-person (at the AFS-USA New York office) where you can see World War I and II helmets, uniforms, photos, letters and other types of memorabilia.

This is a photo of Howard Brooke, just after his ambulance collided with a tank going in for attack. It was taken in the winter of 1943 – 1944 near Ortona, Italy. (Photograph by John C. Cobb II)

A group of U.S. American volunteers and British soldiers in Tunisia in 1943.  Pictured from left to right: Bill Cobb, Gordon Ellis, Bombardier Jones (Medical Orderly), Bob Orton (AFS Volunteer), Dick Corse, Doc Brown, Tom Jones. (Photograph by John C. Cobb II)

These are just a few examples of the images that are available in the AFS Archives. If you wish to view any of this material in person, or learn more about the archives, you are welcome to contact Nicole Milano, the AFS Head Archivist (nicole.milano@afs.org) or call (212) 479-1129.

AFS Intercultural Programs is pleased to announce the April/May/June 2012 issue of AFS Intercultural Link, AFS Intercultural Link Global v.3 i.2, which can be shared with anyone interested in learning more about intercultural education.

The AFS Intercultural Link Newsletter is the quarterly newsletter on intercultural learning in the AFS Network. The newsletter features content shared by the Intercultural Learning Work Group as well as other AFS Partners and guest writers, including information on trends in intercultural education, interviews with experts in the field and overviews of upcoming and previous conferences.

The ICL Team at AFS International has recently uploaded a new video presenting the 2012 Intercultural Link Initiatives. In a dialogue, Laura Kline-Taylor and Vincenzo Morlini, President & CEO of AFS Intercultural Programs, discuss the current opportunities that exist for the AFS Network and for Friends of AFS.

The Intercultural Link Initiatives include the following materials and tools:

• The Intercultural Link Newsletter
• The ICL …for AFSers and ICL …for friends of AFS Document Series
• The Intercultural Link Initiative website which offers resources and advice from experts in the intercultural field
• The digital library with materials that can be used by registered AFS Volunteers and Staff
• The ICL blog (this one!)
• The Intercultural Link Learning Program, the training and assessment Program  taking place in five regions around the world in 2012.