AFS Long Term Impact Study, Report 2
- Creator
- Hansel, Bettina
- Who
- Staff member, AFSer
- Publisher
- AFS Intercultural Programs
- Published in
- New York
- Publication Year
- 2008
- # of pages
- 36
- license
Courtesy of the Archives of the American Field Service and AFS Intercultural Programs (AFS Archives.) Please contact a staff member in the AFS Archives at archives@afs.org for information regarding the rights and reproduction policies of this specific item.
In 2006, AFS conducted a large-scale research effort in order to determine the long-term impact of an intercultural learning experience. The study compared AFS alumni to their peers, 20 to 25 years after their participation in an exchange program. More than 11,000 AFS Alumni in 15 different countries were contacted and nearly 2,000 submitted survey results. Each person who responded was also asked to nominate two high school friends to complete the survey as the control group. The study found that AFS participants showed significant advantages in language fluency and cultural competence that lasted far beyond the duration of the experience abroad.
Report 2: Looking at Intercultural Sensitivity, Anxiety, and Experience with Other Cultures