UPDATE

Meanwhile the AYF Alumni Club Emergency Fundraiser to benefit students from the group displaced by the COVID-19 situation has reached about $8,000.

This is a wonderful signal and a strong beginning that speaks to the special bonds felt across generations of our extended JYF and AYF community!

Thank you kindly to all who donated! But the unmet needs are still significant.

If you would like to join the effort, you will find more information on the fundraiser in the announcement below.

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Dear JYF and AYF Alumni, dear Friends of the Academic Year in Freiburg,

The coronavirus pandemic has impacted the lives of just about everyone on Earth, and this global health crisis has especially shaken the stability of the AYF class of 2019-20.

EARLY AUF WIEDERSEHEN: 19/20 AYFers, Ulli, and Peter gather for a sudden farewell meeting on March 12, 2020.

Thursday three weeks ago saw one of the saddest AYF meetings ever as Program Director Ulli Struve and Academic Director Peter McIsaac briefed students to plan for their sudden departure back to the United States. The intensifying COVID-19 pandemic had made the suspension of the AYF program inevitable.

The meeting was a very different parting than anyone of us experienced as AYFers, but even with their time cut short now, the AYF class of 2019-20 will always be AYF alumni!

As program alumni, we are committed to relieving the financial burden these students are unexpectedly facing as their academic year in Freiburg abruptly comes to an end.

Are you willing to support our fellow AYFers by giving to the AYF Alumni Emergency Fund?

AYF is hard at work seeking to reduce the financial fallout by working with local partners. But virtually all AYF 2019-20 students are still facing up to five months of additional rent payments for their student housing in Freiburg, hastily arranged high-cost local transportation, expensive, last-minute flight purchases, and quite possibly additional tuition expenses as their path to graduation has become more uncertain.

Your financial support is critical in order to relieve this unprecedented financial stress on AYF 2019-20 students caused by the suspension of the AYF program.

Please give what you can ($5, $50, $500, or $5,000) to support our fellow AYFers now.

Here is what some AYF students have to say about the financial challenges they’re unexpectedly facing:

“This has set me back a semester in school; I’m financially devastated.”

“I have already paid about $7,000 for the spring semester, which has not started in Germany.”

“I had to buy pretty expensive tickets to get home on such short notice and I’m worried about more expensive housing costs when I go home. I’ll get a job, so I know I’ll be okay, but with student debt and tuition refunds still up in the air it’s just a lot.”

We are also immensely grateful for everything the home universities are doing to mitigate the impact of this grave disruption on our fellow AYFers. But as alumni we are uniquely positioned to help quickly – while looking toward the future! Since many 2019-20 AYF students have indicated a desire to return to Freiburg to complete the experience, any excess funds not needed for immediate emergency assistance will be slated for future distribution as travel grants and scholarships.

To support 2019-20 AYF Students, please follow the links at the end of this message.

As an international community of AYF alumni, our strength is each other during good times and bad.

Thank you so very much for your generosity during this financial crisis.

From all of us at the AYF Alumni Association and AYF Alumni & Friends, the US and German Chapters of the AYF Alumni Club, we are wishing you and your loved ones much health and safety as we all navigate these uncharted waters together.

For the combined Alumni Club Boards,

Elizabeth Kunze
Membership Committee Chair
Academic Year Freiburg Alumni Association (AYFAA)

Kimberly Mueller
President, AYF Alumni & Friends (AAAF)

Alumni wishing to support the Club’s Fundraising Initiative in the United States will find details on the AYFAA Page.

Alumni living in Germany can make a donation through the German chapter of the AYF Alumni Club to ensure their contributions are tax deductible in Germany.