Ayusa

Ayusa promotes international understanding and leadership through youth exchange programs. We offer a unique, richly personal experience for students, volunteer families, host high schools and local communities. Ayusa reaches across interpersonal and international borders, celebrating worldwide community through the spirit, character and promise of our youth.

Ayusa International was founded in 1980 under the name Pacific American International Student Services as a not-for-profit, tax exempt student exchange organization. The name was officially changed to Ayusa International in 1984.

In 1982, Ayusa received USIA (now U.S. Department of State) designation as an official Teenage Exchange Visitor Program. This designation authorizes AYUSA to issue Form DS 2019 to its international students applying for a J-1 exchange visitor visa to the U.S.

Since our beginning in 1980 with the placement of thirty Japanese students, Ayusa has grown to become one of the premier student exchange organizations in the United States, and is widely recognized around the world. More than 50,000 international and American students have participated on AYUSA programs since 1980. Ayusa has also received numerous U.S. Department of State grants to fund scholarship programs throughout the Middle East, Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. Today, AYUSA places an average of 1,500 inbound students from over 75 countries worldwide, and operates outbound programs in 20 countries each year.

The organizational structure of Ayusa International includes overseas offices (Chile, France, Germany, Japan, Korea and Peru) and U.S. regional offices. Ayusa world headquarters is based in San Francisco, California.

Ayusa brings over 1300 into the States each year from around the world. our exchange students live with families across the US and attend high school for an academic year.