Explore the world from home, make new friends and experience new cultures. With this one-of-a-kind online program you will learn about connecting with people across cultures and become part of a global community. Choose from a range of start dates throughout the year.
Change the world, become part of a global community, and learn about social innovation with two world-class organizations! This program will teach you the tools you need to create your social impact project and become a Global Changemaker, no matter where you are. It was developed by AFS in partnership with the Center for Social Impact Strategy at the University of Pennsylvania, an Ivy League institution.
Soliya is an international non-profit organization with more than 20 years of experience designing and delivering high-impact virtual exchange programs and dialogue-based learning experiences for more than 75,000 alumni in 60+ countries.
In addition to connecting students across borders through facilitated online dialogue, Soliya is recognized as one of the leading global organizations for training dialogue facilitators, offering professional development for individuals and institutions seeking to strengthen communication across difference.
Soliya works with universities, community organizations, companies, and governments to help people navigate polarization, build intercultural understanding, and develop the communication, collaboration, and critical thinking skills needed to address complex challenges.
Soliya is a non-profit subsidiary of AFS Intercultural Programs, bringing together two strong, mission-driven organizations with long-standing commitments to fostering global citizenship, expanding international education, and promoting intercultural understanding. Find out more
AFS Global Up Americas is a virtual exchange program supported by the Stevens Initiative. Over the course of 2023 to 2025, more than 3,000 students will receive full scholarships to participate in an immersive virtual exchange between the United States, Colombia, Mexico and other countries in the Americas. Additionally, the program will empower 120 dedicated teachers with the tools and expertise to foster, sustain, and expand virtual exchange and intercultural education.
Thanks to the generous support of The Cyril Taylor Charitable Foundation, high-school teachers anywhere in the world and their students can also benefit from this program. AFS Effect+ for the Classroom Program is a full scholarship global virtual program for teachers who want to learn about key concepts and principles of global citizenship education (including the UN SDGs), and how to foster it with their students. Since its first iteration in 2020, the AFS Effect+ for the Classroom Program has already engaged 750 educators from 16 countries, reaching 25,000+ high school students.
Addressing global sustainability challenges requires engaging diverse young people in every corner of the world. To this end, the AFS Global STEM Changemakers Initiative aims to provide immersive learning experiences through STEM, global competence, and sustainability-focused intercultural exchange programs for over 5,000 young people and educators worldwide over 5-years across a portfolio of four unique programs, supported by bp, a global energy company.
Virtual exchanges have a meaningful immediate impact on the development of global competence among high-school aged youth around the world, an AFS study found. The “AFS Global You Virtual Exchange Impact Study” conducted by independent researchers, and funded by a grant from the Stevens Initiative implies that it is crucial for students to have meaningful intercultural exchanges, which can be virtual, to develop global competence.
The results of the study demonstrate that short virtual programs, such as the five-week AFS Global You Adventurer, provide immediate growth in aspects of youth global competence, especially in terms of having a more positive view of peers from other cultures, being able to actively withhold judgement of others, and their cross-cultural communication skills.
AFS has been transforming lives and developing active global citizens through our intercultural education programs for over 75+ years. For the AFS Global You Changemaker program we partnered with the University of Pennsylvania’s (Penn) Center for Social Impact Strategy (CSIS), an Ivy League University and one of the most prestigious educational institutions in the world.