United States Ambassador S. Fitzgerald Haney awarded an AFS Scholarship to Jesús Vallejos, a student at the Science High School in Limón, during the opening ceremony of the National System of Science and Technology High Schools class of 2016. This brilliant student will travel to the United States for a year of studies.

Author’s Note: The use of the noun and adjective “American” in this article conforms to the definition in Princeton’s WordNet: (A native or inhabitant of the United States), and the recommendation by the Associated Press Stylebook: (An acceptable description for a citizen of the United States). Natives and inhabitants of North, Central and South America are also Americans.

Ambassador Haney highlighted in his speech that Vallejos will have the experience to learn more about American culture, traditions and education system. Since the United States Embassy began a partnership with the scientific high schools of Costa Rica, twenty-eight students have benefited from partnership programs. This is the fourth year the Embassy has sponsored AFS scholarships, which provide a way for students of limited means to participate in this valuable program.

The Vice-chancellor of the Technological Institute of Costa Rica, Dr. Luis Paulino Méndez Director of the System of Scientific Schools of Costa Rica and Kenneth Rivera participated in the ceremony.

The United States Embassy is happy to support these initiatives that favor educational exchange of Costa Rican youth.

The American Field Service (AFS) Intercultural Programs is an international youth exchange organization. Worldwide, AFS is a group of over 50 independent, not-for-profit organizations called partners, each with its own network of volunteers, professionally staffed office(s), volunteer board of directors and website. In 2007, almost 13,000 participants traveled abroad on AFS cultural exchanges between 65 countries, as supported by 44,000 active volunteers. The U.S.-based partner, AFS-USA, sends more than 1,100 U.S. students abroad and places international students with more than 2,300 U.S. families each year. More than 424,000 people have gone abroad with AFS and over 100,000 former AFS students live in the U.S.

The history of the AFS scholarships dates back to World War I in France, when American expats established a field hospital and later provided volunteer ambulance crews across Europe. Many of the volunteers who served the American Ambulance Field Service were college graduates from the U.S. After WWI, the AFS sponsored a fellowship in France to grant scholarships for exchange students.