If you have a school administrator or educator who wants (or is willing) to give you a few minutes of their time on a Zoom call or phone call, it’s important for you to be prepared to share with them in a succinct and knowledgeable way.
- Know your technology- Before you schedule the meeting, make sure you know what technology you have available to you and what you are comfortable using. If you want to learn more about some technology tools available to you for free and how to use them, read this article about online technology tools.
- Know the goals of the meeting- Make sure you know what information the school/educator wants to learn more about and gather the appropriate information. Consider areas such as study abroad (virtual or physical) for their students, scholarships, how to better leverage hosting in their local community, what resources are available to help their faculty with intercultural learning and diversity awareness, country-specific information or contacts or more. This PowerPoint (AFS as a School Partner) can be used to share all of the above with schools. Make sure to personalize the presentation before using! (See slides 19 and 21.)
- Follow up with an email- Within a few days of your meeting, make sure to follow up with the individual with any helpful links, handouts or information that they wanted and be sure to thank them for their time.
- Update Global Link- If you found a new AFS School Champion or learned helpful information about the school, make sure to update Global Link so that you, other volunteers and the staff are all using the most up-to-date information about the school. *Remember, school information that is updated in Global Link will carry over to MyAFS too! School Outreach Coordinators and School Representatives have access to update school information using the “Organization” tab in Global Link.*
If you need additional resources or the school asks you questions that you are unsure how to answer, please consider reaching out to your field specialist or to Jill Woerner, Director of Educational Outreach at jwoerner@afsusa.org.