AFS Dallas

Volunteer Spotlight 🌟

Behind every meaningful exchange experience is a dedicated volunteer making a difference. Today, we’re excited to recognize one of our incredible Dallas-area volunteers, Max, for his commitment, passion, and impact on our AFS community.

Join us in celebrating Max in the comments below!

🌎✈️ Travel Around the World with Us One Last Time— Day 10! 🌍

Ahlan wa sahlan is how Egyptians welcome a stranger. It means you have come to family, and your road here is smooth. They say it to people they have never met, at the door.

Mohamed has been saying it his whole life. He is eighteen, he has two national gold medals in fencing, and he wrote in his letter that he wants to be a real part of the family and not a guest. Then he offered to help with the housework and the shopping.

He is the only student from the entire continent of Africa we have left to place this year. One family gets him.

🌎✈️ Travel Around the World with Us — Day 9! 🌍

Italians do not say ti amo to family. They say ti voglio bene. I want your good.

A separate verb for the love that has nothing to do with romance, which is the most accurate description of hosting we have ever read.

Three Italian boys, no DFW family yet. 🏡

🌎✈️ Travel Around the World with Us — Day 8! 🌍

Magari is one of our favorite words. It means if only, or maybe, or I hope so. Italians use it for a wish they cannot make happen alone.

Which is exactly the situation these three are in. They can want this all they like. It does not happen until a family here decides. ❤️

🌎✈️ Travel Around the World with Us — Day 7! 🌍

He is fifteen and he has lunch with his grandmother every Friday. He does not skip it.

That is Phillipe. He likes engines, plays guitar, and is still waiting on a family in DFW for this fall.

Tell me that is not the kind of kid you want at your table.

🌎✈️ Travel Around the World with Us — Day 6! 🌍

Fernweh. German for the ache to be somewhere you have never been. 😭

Emilio has it. So did his dad, who was an exchange student in America before him.
A family said yes to his father once. Now his son is waiting on one in DFW.

🌎✈️ Travel Around the World with Us — Day 5! 🌍

Three more, and these three are still open.

Alais is shy for about a week and then she is the funniest person in the room.

Ferenc wants to try baseball so badly it is in three different places in his file.

Zilin is Chinese, goes to school in Finland, plays piano and violin, and paraglides. Paraglides!

People always ask me what these kids are like. They are like this. Specific, funny, a little nervous, but completely ready. ❤️

🌎✈️ Travel Around the World with Us — Day 4!🌍

Three things you would know by October if one of them lived with you:

Why France has twelve time zones.

What is underneath almost every Swiss house.

Why saunas outnumber cars in Finland.

Three boys. Three countries. No DFW family yet. 🤞

🌎✈️ Travel Around the World with Us — Day 3!🌍

Three boys. Three countries. And three pretty great stories!

Arthur plays basketball and violin because both challenge him.

Danilo trains for hours, then cooks for his family. 

Santino boxes to build confidence and draws to unwind. Everyone calls him Santi.

And yet, teenage boys are some of the hardest students for us to place every year.

We don’t quite get it! They’re funny, they’ll eat everything you make, and they’re often so much easier than people expect.

Maybe your spare room is meant for one of them. 🏡❤️