The information about schools in MyAFS and Global Link is only accurate if we all work together to keep it current. If you see information that is missing or incorrect, PLEASE correct it using the information below or ask your School Partnerships staff person to update it on your behalf. Thank you for your help!
This article walks through:
- How to Find School Information in MyAFS
- How to Find School Information in Global Link
- Navigating between MyAFS and Global Link Information
- Finding Schools in a Particular Geography in Global Link
How to Find School Information in MyAFS
To find school information in MyAFS, go to the Team section on the left-hand menu:
From here, find the Schools tab across the top of the page:
Use the search boxes to search by school name, city, county, state, or zip code. Note that schools are displayed by their Hosting Status, so you may need to adjust the check boxes to find the school you seek.
The list of schools can easily be sorted by clicking on the column headers. In this case, the list was sorted by School Name:
To see more detail about a specific school in MyAFS, click on the school’s name. The results will depend on how well volunteers and staff have updated the school's record. Here is an example of a very complete school profile:
To learn how to update the information you see in MyAFS, visit Updating School & District Records or Updating Key School Personnel.
How to Find School Information in Global Link
In order to look up an individual school in Global Link, go to the Organization section of Global Link and type in the name of the school in the English Name field:
Note: If the school has a common name (e.g. Washington High School), you might want to narrow the search by adding the city, zip code, and/or the state abbreviation before selecting Search.
Next, click on the name of the school in the Search Results here:
If you have any trouble finding a particular school, check out these notes on the Naming of Schools in Global Link. You may also want to try looking by city or address or in MyAFS. If the school cannot be found, please email the School Partnerships Staff.
The first page that opens after using the instructions above is the school's general contact information including a spot for the school's website and the staff directory. This is the Org. Info tab at the top of the page.
More detailed information about the school is found in the School Description tab at the top of the page here:
The School Description page contains many fields to track such information as the best contact people at the school for hosting or sending, the school's policy on accepting exchange students or giving credit to sending students, etc. This information must be maintained by volunteers and AFS staff as new information is learned, so please do your part in updating information and dating your updates. If you do not have access to edit certain fields, please ask your School Outreach Coordinator or School Partnerships staff to make the needed updates as school information and policies change regularly. Thank you!
In the designated fields you can see the names and email addresses of various school contacts. However, adding or editing school staff members is easiest to do via MyAFS. The school officials who can receive an emailed online PAF via Global Link are the PAF Receiver, Principal, School Hosting Contact, and PAF Signer. *Note that the PAF Signer’s title, name, and email as well as the ‘Date Signed’ will be updated automatically when an online PAF is signed electronically.
The information in the School Description tab is also used for the Form E - the part of the host family application that lets our incoming exchange students learn about their school placement before they arrive. Thus, it is courteous to give them current and accurate school information.
The individuals listed above (Sections 1 and 3 on the School Description page) will also show up in the easy-to-view school description on MyAFS, so it is beneficial to your entire team to keep this information up-to-date. See Updating Key School Personnel to learn how.
To learn more about the other blue tabs in a school's record in Global Link, visit Understanding Current & Past AFS Activity in a School.
Navigating between MyAFS and Global Link Information
Global Link can house more information, but the view on MyAFS is easier to read. Thus, it can be nice to use BOTH views.
If you started in MyAFS and want to view the information in Global Link, click on "View on Global Link" at the top of the page:
If you are already in Global Link, you can switch to the MyAFS view from the School Description Page here:
Finding Schools in a Particular Geography in Global Link
In the MyAFS section above, we saw how a list of schools in a particular city, zip code, or county can be identified. This sectionwill discuss how to use the Schools Dashboard in Global Link to find schools in a particular community or zip code range. You can find the Schools Dashboard in the Organization section of Global Link here:
Once it opens, you will be asked if you want to look up all the schools in a particular zip code range, in an Area Team, or in a specific City and State or County and State:
Before you select Search be sure to adjust the Median Income as appropriate. The median income is calculated using data about the zip code where the school is located and may not represent the student population (e.g. the median income in Washington D.C. is pretty high but many higher-income families send their kids to private schools, thus the median income of students in Washington D.C. public schools is likely lower than listed in this tool). While we want to make AFS accessible to all students regardless of income, we also know that families with lower incomes may need more time to fundraise, save, and apply for scholarships to send a student abroad, for example. Depending on why you are using this tool, you may even want to change the Median Income to All.
Once you select Search, all results matching your search criteria will be shown including schools where we have had no AFS activity. You can sort the results in any way you choose by clicking on the column headers. In this case, I sorted by the number of students hosted at the school since the mid-90s:
To learn more about a specific school on the list, click on the school's name to get to this page:
Clicking on the various + signs will yield more information about the schools.
- School - Clicking on the School option will show some additional details about the school. Clicking on the blue ORGANIZATION_REF number will bring you to the same view of the school as described above under How to Find School Information in Global Link.
- Campaigns - This area will show you any promotional activities recorded for the school since 2013.
- Sending - Opening this section will show you all of the students who have gone abroad from the high school since the mid-1990s including the year, country, and the parents' names.
- Hosting - This section shows all of the families for each student hosted in the school since the mid-1990s. You can sort the list by clicking on any of the column headers. This example list is sorted by program year to show all of the families who hosted students in 2016. As you can see some students had multiple families.
- Volunteer - The Volunteer section lists anyone with a volunteering service case who lives in the same zip code as the school or any of the sending or hosting families. Global Link doesn't currently have a way to link volunteers to a particular school, so it is possible that some of these people have no personal connection to the school, though they likely live relatively close to the school and could be a resource if you are seeking a liaison, host family leads, or a sending interviewer in the area. Please see the Interpreting Service Cases article to learn more about volunteering service cases and the Checking a Volunteer's Registration Status article to learn more about statuses.
Looking Up All Schools in a School District
If you would like to look up all of the schools connected to a particular school district, go to the Organization section of Global Link and click on Add Filter. In the box that pops up, Find School District. Here is an example: "School District starts with Rosem"
Once you add the filter, choose Search. In this case, all of the schools in the Rosemount-Eagan-Apple Valley School District appear.