American Councils Alumni

Badge Program

Promote hosting, share exchange, earn recognition!

Alumni of American Councils outbound programs for US students (NSLI-Y, Virtual NSLI-Y, FLEX Abroad, YES Abroad, CLS) can earn V Badges for promoting exchange opportunities in their US communities.

What are V Badges?

V Badges are engagement awards created and sent through the virtualbadge.io badging system to those who meet eligibility requirements. Virtualbadge.io allows recipients to easily share their well-earned badges on social media such as LinkedIn. Displaying V Badges for promoting hosting opportunities will reflect positively on participants pursuing future scholarship opportunities, education, employment, and other activities in international education and exchange programs.

What is considered engagement?

  • Sharing ACIE Exchange’s posts on Facebook, Instagram, or other platforms (LinkedIn, NextDoor, alumni/interest groups, etc.)

  • Creating posts about hosting and tagging the ACIE_Exchange and ACIE.Exchange accounts

  • Contacting local-to-you high schools to ask about their exchange student enrollment policy and sharing that information with American Councils via PDF

  • Conducting a host family recruitment event at a local business or event (back to school night, farmer’s market, library, etc. Learn more about tabling here). American Councils will provide flyers and a signup sheet if two week’s notice is given prior to the event).

  • Hosting a student in your family or identifying a US host family for a FLEX, YES, or UUTI program student 

  • Responding to prompts and surveys from American Councils about your exchange experience, the value of exchange, and your outreach

  • Submitting a Host Family Referral Form so American Councils can follow up with interested families (Note: to qualify, you must have contact with the family about hosting first!)

How to Participate:

  1. Ready to help promote exchange? Submit our short opt-in survey here: Alumni Badge Program

  2. Once you have activity to report, submit your survey here. We encourage you to submit surveys throughout the

Rewards

  • E-Certificates and Virtual Badges will be sent out by September 15 to qualifying Alumni Ambassadors

  • Host Family Referral Honoraria: if your outreach leads to a family who hosts in 2024, you will be eligible for a $100 Referral Honoraria. Alumni who refer multiple host families (3+) will be eligible for an additional $500 bonus. Your own family hosting does not qualify for this honorarium, but we also encourage you to learn more about hosting here!