
The Norwood Chapter of the American Field Service, Foreign Exchange Student Program, met Tuesday evening, January 16, at the Senior High School. Presiding at the session was Dr. Norton Fishman, president, who read a letter from AFS/NY received by Mrs. Rodgers, as well as excerpts from the AFS/NY bulletin which is sent to the many chapters each month.
The foremost order of business at this time is the selection of a home or homes for exchange students for the 1962-63 academic year. These students are boys and girls between 16 and 18 years of age. They come to the United States from 60 different countries, all are able to speak English passably well, if not fluently, and are carefully chosen abroad for personal qualities, as well as for academic ones. These youngsters come to the United States to live as other teenagers in our community, to learn for themselves, first hand, how the normal American family lives. The families who have had the experience of a foreign student as a member of their family have found it to be a truly warm, interesting, and rewarding year, both to the student and to themselves.
The members of the Homes Committee, under the chairmanship of Mrs. John Bouchard, are Mrs. Theodore Crawford, Mrs. Paul Gallagher, Mr. and Mrs. David Miller, and Dr. Norton Fishman. Any family in Norwood with “a heart—large enough to share a portion with another child from another land for year — and probably forever” should contact Mrs. Bouchard, 762-2865, for an interview. Homes are selected in February and applications sent to AFS/NY so that by spring the new student and the new family may become acquainted through letters. Norwood hopes to be able to have another student from a foreign land living here next year.
The fund drive will get underway about the first of March. Plans have been formulated for an American Field Service, Foreign Exchange Student Week the end of February with a Mardi Gras Ball to be held at the Bell House in Sharon on March 2nd. Tickets will go on sale after February 1, 1962.
The Norwood Chapter of AFS now has their own printed stationery and a Post Office Box, No. 252.
The next meeting of the Foreign Exchange Student Program will be held February 13, at the Norwood Senior High School.