AFS in the Little Apple

In the summer of 1960, Manhattan's first AFS student arrived to spend a year in the Little Apple. Ernst of Salzburg, Austria, became a member of a Manhattan family that year. Since then, Manhattan area families have been hosts to almost 100 other high school students from around the world. They have come from: Pakistan, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Peru, France, Japan, Uruguay, Thailand, New Zealand, Costa Rica, Yugoslavia, Finland, Germany, Belgium, Norway, Brazil, Morocco, Barbados, Canada, Colombia, England, Honduras, Luxembourg, Spain, Egypt, Australia, Italy, West Germany, Mexico, Sri Lanka, Israel, Sweden, Portugal, Paraguay, Argentina, Iceland, Norway, Greenland, The Dominican Republic, Turkey, Chile, Denmark, Venezuela, Hungary and Hong Kong.

Also in 1960, Manhattan sent one of its own, Don, to Newcastle on Tyne, England. Since that time, we have sent nearly 50 other local teenagers and one adult to spend a year or a summer on six continents. They have taken Manhattan culture and values to: South Africa, Honduras, Ecuador, Greece, Turkey, Tunisia, Austria, Costa Rica, Sweden, Finland, Tasmania, Norway, Chile, New Zealand, Venezuela, Canada, Argentina, Belgium, Australia, Spain, Japan, Egypt, The Netherlands, Denmark, Italy, Germany, Switzerland and China.

AFS in Manhattan convenes in two formats: AFS Club for students at Manhattan High School, and the Manhattan AFS Chapter for students and adults. As members of one of the largest volunteer nonprofit organizations in the world, we are in the Flint Hills AFS District of the Heartland Area of Kansas, and the South Central States AFS Region with Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana, Missouri and Arkansas.