MONROE — On April 15, 10 AFS International students from Palestine, Estonia, Egypt, Nigeria, Germany, Lebanon, India, Malaysia, and Thailand will come to Monroe for a unique Cheese/Dairy experience.
They will learn about cheesemaking and farming when they tour the National Historic Cheesemaking Center, visit the Alp and Dell Cheese Store, and spend the night at the Wegmueller Dairy Farm. They will meet the farm’s cows, calves, pigs, and horses. In addition, they will ride horses, do farm chores, and learn more about dairy farming in Wisconsin.
Under the umbrella of AFS-USA Intercultural Programs, these students have been living with families and spending the 2022/23 school year in Wisconsin.
These AFS Sponsored Programs students went through a rigorous selection process to earn scholarships from the following U.S. State Department-sponsored programs:
● YES: A post-911 initiative, the Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange & Study Program provides scholarships for secondary school students from countries with significant Muslim populations.
● FLEX: The Future Leaders Exchange Program is a highly competitive, merit-based scholarship program for students from former Soviet Union countries.
● CBYX: A post-war peace initiative, the Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange scholarship brings students from Germany to the U.S. and sends American students to Germany.
While in the United States, Sponsored Programs students complete a series of cluster enrichment activities that give them insight into American political and social infrastructure, cultural heritage and values, as well as the concept of “civil society.” Learning through interaction with local leaders in a variety of different fields helps the students to develop their own interests and leadership abilities.
The AFS Sponsored Programs students will be joined by three AFS Exchange students from France, Austria, and Thailand hosted in Monroe and Juda this year.
AFS Intercultural Programs began as the American Ambulance Field Service, a volunteer ambulance corps created in April 1915 by A. Piatt Andrew. AFS Drivers under the leadership of Andrew in World War I and Stephen Galatti in World War II, AFS was transformed from a wartime humanitarian aid organization into a groundbreaking international secondary school exchange, volunteer, and intercultural learning organization with a noble vision: to help build a more peaceful world by promoting understanding among cultures.
Go to https://bit.ly/3KYkxm9 to learn more about studying abroad, volunteering, or hosting a student with AFS-USA.
