Diversity Committee Proposal -- Background

AFS-USA is the oldest and largest international high school exchange program in the US. As a “leader in intercultural learning,” with its mission to work “toward a more just and peaceful world,” the question that comes to mind is, does AFS reflect a commitment to the essence of its vision – inclusion? The honest answer is that we don’t know. At best, we could be a diverse organization, but we have no real measure to support such a claim. At worst, we are sorely under representing certain groups, and therefore off-track in the pursuit of our mission. From a business perspective, we could be neglecting opportunities to grow our student and host family numbers, volunteer base, and funding, which are all detriments in the current financial and regulatory environment.

It’s the unfortunate lack of data that makes developing an organizational strategy premature, which is why the sponsors’ view is that the committee initially focus on collecting quantifiable data, examine current practices and explore the communities we do and don’t serve. Once we understand our situation, the committee should move to clearly define diversity, recommend goals, strategies, and objective measures of success.

In the end, AFS-USA needs a diversity strategy that reflects our mission, that sets the example for others to follow, that makes it evident that we are the industry leader, not because we send or host the most students, but because we are true reflection of our society.