AFS commemorated and celebrated its centennial in 2014-2015. From the founding of the American Ambulance Field Service in April 1915 to more than 450,000 former AFS Participants in its centennial year, AFS continues to serve as a volunteer organization daring to create change. By linking our “learning to live together” philosophy to the defining global issues of the 21st Century, AFS is dedicated to building an inclusive community of global citizens determined to build bridges among cultures.

The AFS Foundation was established on July 13, 2004, in Zurich, Switzerland. It endeavors to preserve the AFS legacy and holds the AFS name and logo. AFS World War II Driver and Life Trustee Ward Chamberlin, Jr. noted that the founding date was the fortieth anniversary of the death of Stephen Galatti, founder of the post-war student exchange programs. Chamberlin and the founding members dedicated the AFS Foundation to the memory of Galatti and “the worldwide struggle for peace to which he devoted his life.”

In February 1984, the Workshop on Intercultural Learning Content and Quality Standards (also known as the Montreal Workshop) affirmed AFS’s commitment to intercultural learning and formally defined its Educational Goals. These 16 Educational Goals continue to define the educational approach, guide ongoing practices (such as orientation activities), and set AFS apart as a unique educational program. AFS Participants attain some of these goals during the AFS experience; others involve a lifetime of reflection. The goals involve growth and change in terms of personal values and skills, interpersonal relationship building, intercultural knowledge and sensitivity, and global issues awareness.

Throughout the 1960s the AFS Winter Program Participants (students coming to the U.S.) continued to meet with U.S. presidents in Washington, D.C., before heading back to their home countries at the end of their stay abroad. The presidents lauded the organization for its contributions to U.S. public diplomacy efforts, and often directly addressed the role of AFS Participants in promoting a more peaceful world.

In the summer of 1948, 29 AFSers embarked on a 24 day, 5,500 mile bus trip through 22 states across the United States. Participants included students from the new secondary school exchange program, in addition to those on the university fellowship program. Stops along the way included the White House in Washington, D.C., the Ford Motor Company assembly plant in Michigan, the Seven Falls of Colorado, and a baseball game in Tennessee. One of the purposes of the bus trip, which continued in following years, was to interest Americans in providing scholarships and hospitality for future AFS Participants.

In April 15, 1945, the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp was liberated by British forces. A contingent of AFS ambulance drivers volunteered to assist with the stretcher-bearing details, distributing meals and medical equipment, and evacuating more than 11,000 people to a displaced persons camp that had been established nearby. The cessation of wartime hostilities came just months after the evacuation of the camp. By the end of the war, the 2,196 ambulance drivers had carried more than 700,000 wounded.

AFS was reactivated as a volunteer ambulance corps shortly after the start of World War II in 1939 under the leadership of Director General Stephen Galatti. The first unit of Americans sailed from New York on March 23, 1940, and joined men who had already volunteered in Europe. After the German invasion and the establishment of Vichy France in June 1940, AFS halted service in France

The Réserve Mallet was the collective name for the camion (truck) units engaged in the transportation of supplies for the French during World War I. Volunteers were recruited for the camion units beginning in April 1917, the same month the United States entered the war. Shortly after establishing the camion units (and partly because of it), the organization changed its name from the American Ambulance Field Service to the American Field Service (AFS.) The United States military later absorbed the AFS ambulance and camion units into their ranks by the end of 1917.

A. Piatt Andrew volunteered as an ambulance driver for the American Ambulance Hospital in January 1915. At the time of Andrew’s arrival, the ambulance drivers at the Hospital primarily ferried patients from the train stations in Paris to hospitals around the city. In March, Andrew was made Inspector General of the Hospital’s Transportation Committee, and in April he successfully negotiated with the French Army to have some ambulance sections of the Hospital work closer to the front lines of battle. These ambulance sections came to be known as the “American Ambulance Field Service.”