Due to the ongoing impact of COVID-19 our current scholarship opportunities are limited. Please refer to this article from the Study Abroad FAQs for more information. We hope to bring back our full repertoire of scholarships in the 2022 year.
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. To get more information about what local scholarship awards maybe available, we recommend you contact the Team and/or Chapter Chair or the TDS (Team Development Specialist).
When scholarship money (held in the banking module) 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 prior to the student's departure on program. The same is true if the local team/chapter has its own scholarship fund and would thus be writing a check to AFS to apply to a student's account.
It is the responsibility of the local team/chapter, however, to notify Field Finance when a student who has received a team/chapter scholarship withdraws before departing on program. 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.
If you have questions, please contact the Scholarships Team at scholarships@afsusa.org or 1-800-237-4636, ext. 2092. Please also email scholarships@afsusa.org to inform them you have awarded students a local scholarship.
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 via fax, email (pdf attachment) or snail mail using the information below:
Mailing Address:
ATTN: Field Finance
AFS-USA, Inc.
120 Wall St. 4th 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 office 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 scholarships@afsusa.org to inform them you have awarded students a local scholarship. Thank you!
Note: If your team/chapter is awarding local scholarships to Group Program participants, please contact Parker Allen at 1-800-876-2376, ext. 2157 for more information BEFORE sending a check or completing the Transfer form.