DEC. 4, 1964
Maine May Welcome Two AFS'ers
Ursula Krome, our first foreign exchange student from Germany, spent the 1963-64 school year with the Moehlings. Carla Fasting, who is now living with the Leslie Strom family, came from Holland to spend this year at Maine West.
According to Mr. John Means, president of AFS, it's important that students realize the need for host families and that they become better acquainted with the AFS program. Applications for juniors who desire to become a host family will be available during the month of December. After Jan. 1st all applications must be complete and are then sent to the AFS headquarters in New York.
Program's Beginning
AFS began in Paris in 1914 during the early days of World War I. Americans who wished to assist the French could not join their army without losing their citizenship, so they sought to help the French in a different way. The American hospital there offered its services to the French Army, and some ambulances were given to it. These were driven by a handful of young Americans who were living in France at the time.
Later, these ambulances were grouped together and sent to serve on the northern front. Under the leadership of Mr. A. Piatt Andrew, interest in this project was created in the United States. More ambulances were brought, and more volunteers were enlisted, until more than 2,500 Americans were serving with French divisions on all fronts.
In World War II, AFS again was activated. It served in Burma, North Africa, Italy, and France, and carried over a million wounded soldiers in this time.
During these years, AFS volunteers worked side by side with men of foreign countries Frenchmen, Indians, Burmese, Englishmen, and Italians. They discovered how personal contacts like these created understanding and respect. When the war was over, AFS decided to continue creating personal contacts by bringing foreign students to the United States.
17 Students
At first, just college and university students were brought to the United States. In 1947, however, it was suggested that maybe this understanding could be created as well, or better, with somewhat younger people. With just 17 students, AFS waited to see what would happen.
As a result, there are now 2,904 students from 59 different countries in the U.S. In addition, this past summer 834 American AFS students went abroad on the Summer Pro-gram, and 304 went abroad on the School Program. Among these students is Dick Heller, who is spending this school year in the Netherlands. So in 15 years this idea has grown from 17 students to 4,042. All together, 29,172 have taken part, or are currently taking part in it.
Both the AFS Committee and the Student Council wish to ex-pand the program at Maine West and bring two students here next year. This can be made possible only if juniors will make their homes available to foreign exchange students.