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AFS is an international, non-profit organization that provides thousands of
American high school students the opportunity to live and study in a foreign
country. AFS also provides American families with the opportunity to host a
high school age "son" or "daughter" from another country.

Each year many students from Maine study abroad on an AFS exchange
program. Also, each year a number of students, from many different
countries around the globe, come and live here for a semester or year on
an exchange program. During that time, the students, their host families
and friends are forever changed by their homestay in our area.

Remembering Our Roots Keeps Us Closer To Our Mission.
The proud history of AFS (formerly the American Field Service) dates back
more than 85 years, to 1914 in Paris when the American Ambulance
(Service) was founded in conjunction with the American Hospital at Neuilly
to assist in evacuating the wounded from the battlefront during World War I.
Then, in World War II, volunteer ambulance drivers again rescued the
battlefield wounded and also helped to liberate concentration camp
survivors at Bergen-Belsen.

After experiencing the devastation of two world wars, these young
ambulance drivers, not much older than our AFS students today, met to
discuss what they could do to help stop the devastation of war from
happening again. They believed, as we believe today, that if people know
and understand each other, it makes it a lot harder to fight one another. They
formed the American Field Service (AFS), dedicated to promoting peace
through student intercultural exchanges.

In 1947, AFS awarded 52 scholarships to students in 11 countries. Today,
AFS exchanges more than 10,000 students worldwide, offers 128 programs
in 50 countries, and has one of the largest volunteer-based networks in the
world.