News items
Read the latest news items for Alumni from AFS.
AFSers reunite on Stewart Island after 27 years
In 1982 Keri Taiaroa was one of four AFSNZ students who were evacuated quickly from Argentina with the outbreak of the Falklands War. Keri was lucky enough to find a new host family—the Aldunce family in Santiago, Chile.
Gallipoli Youth Award - Your donations in action
We quite often get asked by Alumni "How is the money we donate used?"
The Gallipoli Youth Award is a scholarship that commenced in 2009 with funding from AFS International. It was such a success that AFS New Zealand and AFS Turkey decided to fund the 2010 award themselves. The vision for this award is that it is one way of AFS to commemorate the sacrifice made during the First World War and that it will become an ongoing scholarship funded through donations.
1955-56 AFS exchange New Zealand to USA Group
Story by Merv Taiaroa
Although a number of the seventeen students who went away in 1955, on their return in 1956, were involved with AFS committees, with chaperoning end of year tours of hosted students or met from time to time in small numbers to all intents and purposes we went about our various careers, some to university and some overseas, quite separately.
Sister Bernadette Cheyne O.P. - Celebrates Golden Jubilee of service to Dominican Order.
Story by Merv Taiaroa
When Bernadette Cheyne wrote to Steve Galatti following her AFS exchange to USA in 1955/56 telling him of her decision to join the Dominican Order he replied very encouragingly and remarked that her AFS experience would enrich her ability in such a career.
Reunion time for Class of ‘69
Story by Jocelyn Johnstone
It was the late 1960s – the era of the Beatles, the assassination of JFK and the moon landing.
We were omniscient, omnipotent 17-year-olds bound for the adventure of our lives.
The Canterbury nominees for an AFS Scholarship to the United States, we met a few times in Christchurch before our August, 1968 departure, shared a comprehensive orientation with the Australians at Stanford University, San Francisco, and then were off to our families.
AFS USA Returnees Function
AFS NZ in conjunction with the US Ambassador, Bill McCormick, hosted a reconnection function on November 2, 2008 in Wellington. The function, at Ambassador McCormick’s residence in Lower Hutt was attended by 80 returnees who travelled to the USA between 1947 and 1976. Earlier in the year, AFS NZ initiated the Greyhound Project – a project that aims to reconnect with returnees from the first 30 years of AFS NZ. Joany Grima, Project Manager, said “40% of returnees have fallen off the AFS database at some point.
