A number of teams and chapters have local scholarship funds which they make available to sending students from their team and/or chapter. Each team and chapter may have different criteria for how they award their local scholarships.
Getting Started
If your team is interested in setting up a local scholarship the first step would be to discuss with your team the following Eligibility requirements, scholarship award amount(s), your scholarship application process, , and who will be your team’s scholarship contacts.
Once this is determined, AFS-USA's Marketing Team will be able to set up your scholarship page on our scholarship website under the Local Scholarships HERE.
Also, if your team plans on awarding a need-based scholarship(s), AFS-USA continues to use FAST application to determine financial need for scholarship applicants. If you would like to utilize the FAST application for your local scholarship AFS staff can set up a process for you. It would involve adding FAST instructions to your scholarship page and establishing a line of communication with your team’s scholarship contact to notify the AFS scholarship staff.
AFS volunteers do not have access to the FAST database, but the staff can relay information about the applicants once they have submitted the application.
If your team is interested in setting up a local scholarship, please reach out to:
Adriana Miladinovic, Study Abroad Manager, Scholarships and Diversity Initiatives (amiladinovic@afsusa.org)
Caitlin Schneider, Senior Director of Study Abroad (cschneider@afsusa.org)
Setting up your local scholarship
The local scholarship funds are usually housed in your team’s centralized account with AFS. To set up a process for transferring those funds to AFS, which will then be awarded to a student and applied to their program fee, contact the AFS-USA's Field Finance staff at fieldfinance@afsusa.org. To learn more about working with the Field Finance and managing finances in your team click HERE.
By contacting the Field Finance staff, you can also get more information about what local scholarship awards may already be available.
When scholarship money (held in the centralized account) is transferred to a student using the Transaction Form, a team/chapter runs no risk of losing this money if the student ends up not going on program. In such instances, the local money awarded to a student through this process would be refunded to the team/chapter after the student withdraws from the program.
Alternatively, there are some teams that have a separate account set up for the scholarships locally. In this case the team would award the scholarship funds to the student by mailing a check to AFS, and notifying the AFS scholarship staff. Similarly, the funds will then be awarded to the student and applied to their program fee.
Withdrawals: It is the responsibility of the local team/chapter, however, to notify the scholarship staff and Field Finance when a student who has received a team/chapter scholarship withdraws. At that time, the refund will be processed in a timely manner and returned to the team/chapter account.
Note: Team/chapter scholarships that are used for program fees will be refunded if a student withdraws, however, team/chapter scholarships that are used to cover the $500 program deposit will not be refunded if a student withdraws before departing on program.
Process to Award Local Funds from Team and Chapter Accounts
The process for awarding local scholarships from team/chapter funds contained in the banking module is:
- Complete the Transaction Form
- Send the completed form as a pdf attachment via email (preferred) or snail mail using the information below:
Mailing Address:
ATTN: Field Finance
AFS-USA, Inc.
120 Wall St. 16th Floor
New York, NY 10005
Email: fieldfinance@afsusa.org
Fax: 646.381.3295
For awards $1,000 or less, only the chapter treasurer's signature is needed. If the award is more than $1,000, both the signature of the chapter treasurer and chapter chair are required.
Once the Field Finance team receives the form, they will post the amount directly to the student's account.
When funds are not in the banking module, chapters should write a check for the award amount and send it to:
AFS USA
Participant Finance
120 Wall St. - 4th Floor
New York, NY 10005
Please put the student's name and service reference number in the memo line of the check, and please email the Scholarships team below to inform them you have awarded a local scholarship.
Adriana Miladinovic, Study Abroad Manager, Scholarships and Diversity Initiatives (amiladinovic@afsusa.org)
Caitlin Schneider, Senior Director of Study Abroad (cschneider@afsusa.org)