AFS Visitors

The Harvard Chapter of the American Field Service (AFS), an international student exchange organization, is hosting 70 high school students from around the world this weekend.

The foreign students, who arrived here last night, will be staying until Sunday with about 50 Harvard undergraduates, William M. Emmons '81, coordinator of the program, said yesterday.

Harvard students have hosted AFS participants every year for more than a decade, Emmons said, adding that Harvard undergraduates who had themselves been AFS exchange students in foreign countries started the program in the '60s.

Several foreign students said yesterday they had heard of Harvard in their home countries and had formed mistaken impressions of what it would be like.

Jutta Skogberg, a 17-year-old Finn staying with a family in Wellesley, said that Harvard has "enormous prestige" in Finland. "I thought Harvard students would be very studious and not interested in much else, but they're really fun, outgoing, partying people," she added.

Intianto Dwi Soekaimi, a 19-year-old Indonesian staying in Hingham, Mass., said he decided this weekend that Harvard students do work hard. "My impression is that every Harvard kid doesn't care how he looks," Soekaimi said, adding. "I think they spend most of their time studying because of their long hair, their beards and moustaches."