Before the final departures of host students of 2018-19 batch, AFS India organized a week-long Annual Hosting Trip for them from 31st March to 6th April 2019 to Southern India from Karnataka to Tamil Nadu. The trip was for 6 nights and 7 days. Total of 45 host students participated in the accompanied by the Staff Members. The places covered were Bangalore, Coorg, Chikmagulur, Puducherry, Mahabalipuram and Chennai.
Stay at Elephant Dubare Camp in Coorg, visit to the beach; Trekking to the highest point in Mullayanagiri (Chikmagulur); Auroville, lunch at the organic café and DJ night in Puducherry, UNESCO heritage sight-seeing in Mahabalipuram, were some of the highlights of the trip.
The students had great fun and enjoyed a lot with their fellow host students. They clicked a lot of pictures and shared on social media. The students enjoyed local food and got a glimpse of another culture in India. We are happy to share some beautiful pictures of the trip. It was good exposure for them to observe different culture, people and try new cuisine.
Another highlight of the trip was the distribution of the scholarship amount to the students. This year AFS India successfully implemented the enhanced local language learning and community service plan to give a very interactive, hands-on and local immersion to the hosted students. The scholarships were provided to students on this optional trip if they have done exceptionally well in both these plans, including passing tests. The two scholarship themes:
Local Language Test: The student who cleared both language test 1 (conducted at mid-term) & language test 2 (conducted in February 2019) were eligible. Top 05 students were the winners:
- Nabhawan Sanrum (Thailand)
- Delphine Oceane Brisson (Canada)
- David Gyula Pinczesi (Hungry)
- Lorenzo Barbolla (Italy)
- Andrea Siddharta Maria (Italy)
Community Service: The student who completed a minimum of 50 hours was en tled to this scholarship . Top 09 students won this scholarship. It is a ma?er of great pride that some students exceeded even 80 hours.
- Giulia Grazia Gonnella (Italy)
- Ester Romeo (Italy)
- Alice Lucarelli (Italy)
- Chiara Bordignon (Italy)
- Kaan Cicigun (Turkey)
- Ippo Sogawa (Japan)
- Louisa Funk (USA)
- Elisa Zucconi (Italy)
- Muhammad Ramadhan (Indonesia)
Overall, Annual Hosting Trip was enjoyed by the hosted students.