{"id":59170,"date":"2025-03-23T20:55:05","date_gmt":"2025-03-23T19:55:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/switzerland.afssite.afs.org\/?p=59170"},"modified":"2025-03-23T20:55:05","modified_gmt":"2025-03-23T19:55:05","slug":"jennifer-petree","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.afs.ch\/fr\/across\/jennifer-petree\/","title":{"rendered":"Jennifer Petree &#8211; Abschlussrede auf dem AFS Volunteers Training"},"content":{"rendered":"<style>.post-meta {display:none;}<\/style>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><em>Lors de son discours de cl\u00f4ture \u00e0 l\u2019AFS Volunteer Training 2024, Jennifer Petree (Comit\u00e9 AFS Vaud) a r\u00e9sum\u00e9 ce que le d\u00e9veloppement de Global Citizens signifie pour elle.<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hi everyone. If we didn\u2019t yet get a chance to meet, I\u2019m Jennifer, and I\u2019m a selection interview volunteer and new intercultural trainer for AFS. I was asked to say a few words to help us put the weekend into a larger context. But before doing that, I\u2019d like to say thanks for the chance to be here with all of you this weekend and to be part of AFS again, after a long absence.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s been 35 years since I first joined AFS as a US exchange student to Argentina in 1987, an experience that was life changing. But then for a million different reasons, I didn\u2019t stay involved with AFS after I returned home, nor after I came to live in Switzerland 20 years ago. That was until last year, when I saw an ad for a selection interviewer, and I thought &#8211; I have teenagers of my own, I love young people, and I still believe in the AFS mission &#8211; let\u2019s do this.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And I am so glad I did. Re-engaging with AFS as a volunteer has given me the opportunity to join a community of like-minded people, and to enjoy long discussions with dozens of curious, open-minded teens from my region during our selection interviews. I love getting to know each of them, hearing about their dreams, and then telling them about AFS and how an exchange year can be so important in shaping their life path and personal development.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But I\u2019m also grateful to have re-engaged with AFS for other reasons, one of which is a feeling &#8211; a feeling of being disheartened and worried about our increasingly conflictual world and divided societies. It\u2019s a time and a world where it\u2019s easy to feel powerless to change much. And it\u2019s in these difficult times that being part of AFS so important, because it\u2019s given me a sense of agency &#8211; a feeling that I have the power to help, in a small way, to create positive, transformational experiences for a new generation of young people &#8211; young people who I hope will then go on to become the kind of ambassadors for peace that our world so desperately needs.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Imagine if every one of today\u2019s leaders &#8211; Trump, Putin, Netanyahu- had been an AFS student, a host parent or a volunteer,.. I\u2019m sure we would be living in a very different kind of world right now.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In these difficult times, that are also hyper competitive and performance driven, it\u2019s also empowering to be part of a human-centered organization that trusts in the talents of volunteers, and gives us a real voice in how the organization runs. It\u2019s something very rare that I don\u2019t take for granted.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Finally, I am grateful to have re-engaged with AFS at an important time of transformation for the organization, where intercultural learning is emerging as a new, secondary \u00ab\u00a0line of business\u00a0\u00bb for us, that can help broaden our impact and connect us to new audiences here at home.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And Switzerland, in my opinion, is the perfect context for this new kind of education. Because while we have always been a multicultural population, recent decades of immigration have made us one of the most culturally diverse societies in Europe, especially where I live, in the Romandie, where more than half of young people have a multicultural identity or live in a household where at least one parent was born elsewhere.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Growing cultural diversity is, in my opinion, a huge asset for the country, but also a big challenge. It means that we all need stronger intercultural skills to negotiate life, work and relationships, skills like the ones we\u2019ve been developing this weekend. I really believe that AFS is uniquely positioned to help meet this need and I feel excited about the opportunities we have in this space.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And here is my final take away &#8211; I believe growing cultural diversity in Switzerland is also an opportunity and a challenge for our organization &#8211; internally. I hope that moving forward, we will become more successful in recruiting a more volunteers, host families and teens to send on exchange that better reflect the rich cultural mosaic that is our country today. It would make us a more resilient and relevant organization going forward, and one that I would feel even more excited to be part of.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the meantime, I hope you all enjoyed your weekend, that you feel newly inspired in your volunteers roles and I wish you all a safe journey home.<\/p>\n<p><figure class=\"wp-image-wrap\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-59552\" src=\"https:\/\/d22dvihj4pfop3.cloudfront.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/71\/2025\/02\/23205240\/1_Jennifer-P-in-dressup-foto-650x488.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"650\" height=\"488\" \/><\/figure><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lors de son discours de cl\u00f4ture \u00e0 l\u2019AFS Volunteer Training 2024, Jennifer Petree (Comit\u00e9 AFS Vaud) a r\u00e9sum\u00e9 ce que&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":938,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900,899],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-59170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-900","category-across"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Jennifer Petree - Abschlussrede auf dem AFS Volunteers Training - Intercultural Programs<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.afs.ch\/fr\/across\/jennifer-petree\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"fr_FR\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Jennifer Petree - Abschlussrede auf dem AFS Volunteers Training - Intercultural Programs\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Lors de son discours de cl\u00f4ture \u00e0 l\u2019AFS Volunteer Training 2024, Jennifer Petree (Comit\u00e9 AFS Vaud) a r\u00e9sum\u00e9 ce que&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.afs.ch\/fr\/across\/jennifer-petree\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Intercultural Programs\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/afsswitzerland\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-03-23T19:55:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/switzerland.afssite.afs.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/71\/2025\/02\/1_Jennifer-P-in-dressup-foto-650x488.jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"florianbachofner\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@afs_ch\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@afs_ch\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"florianbachofner\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.afs.ch\/fr\/across\/jennifer-petree\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.afs.ch\/fr\/across\/jennifer-petree\/\",\"name\":\"Jennifer Petree - Abschlussrede auf dem AFS Volunteers Training - Intercultural Programs\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.afs.ch\/fr\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.afs.ch\/fr\/across\/jennifer-petree\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.afs.ch\/fr\/across\/jennifer-petree\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/switzerland.afssite.afs.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/71\/2025\/02\/1_Jennifer-P-in-dressup-foto-650x488.jpeg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-03-23T19:55:05+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.afs.ch\/fr\/#\/schema\/person\/04523bd6eb022f944ab7203f151939e3\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.afs.ch\/fr\/across\/jennifer-petree\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"fr-FR\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.afs.ch\/fr\/across\/jennifer-petree\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"fr-FR\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.afs.ch\/fr\/across\/jennifer-petree\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/switzerland.afssite.afs.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/71\/2025\/02\/1_Jennifer-P-in-dressup-foto-650x488.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/switzerland.afssite.afs.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/71\/2025\/02\/1_Jennifer-P-in-dressup-foto-650x488.jpeg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.afs.ch\/fr\/across\/jennifer-petree\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/switzerland.afssite.afs.org\/fr\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Jennifer Petree &#8211; 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