The United States Department of State funds several exchange programs for youth to travel and live outside of the United States. The three main programs are the National Security Language Initiative for Youth (NSLIY), Kennedy Lugar Youth Exchange and Study (YES), and the Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange (CBYX). These exchanges are great ways for teens of every income level to explore the world, and I highly encourage all those considering exchange to look more into these wonderful programs!
The first program is NSLIY. From their website: "The National Security Language Initiative for Youth (NSLI-Y), sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, provides merit-based scholarships for eligible high school students to learn less commonly taught languages in summer and academic-year overseas immersion programs." Arabic, Mandarin, Hindi, Korean, Persian, Russian, and Turkish are all available for study. Their website is: http://www.nsliforyouth.org/. This year, they awarded 100 scholarships. The admissions process began in the fall, and included a written application and a local interview, along with one reference. Everything is paid for, including a stipend.
The second program is YES Abroad: from their website "The Kennedy-Lugar YES Abroad program, sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, is offering American high school students and recent graduates in the U.S. full scholarships for up to one academic year in countries with significant Muslim populations." This year, 65 scholarships were awarded to live in Ghana, Oman, Morocco, Bosnia, Turkey, India, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand. Everything is paid for, including a stipend. The admissions process began this fall/winter, and included a written application and a fully paid weekend, the In Person Selection Event, which took place in Chevy Chase, Maryland this spring. I plan to do another post about the beloved IPSE, because it was fantastic!
The third program is the Congress Bundestag Youth Exchange. I did not apply for this program, but it sends Americans to live in Germany for a year. Like NSLIY and YES, CBYX requires a written application and a person interview, though their interview events are day long meetings, as opposed to a weekend long event with YES Abroad. One of my friends, Dani, who also applied for YES with me, will be living in Germany through this scholarship and I highly recommend her blog: http://danisyearabroad.blogspot.com/. Everything but spending money and internal airfare to the pre departure orientation in Washington D.C. is covered.
I applied to both YES Abroad and NSLIY, and was accepted to both of them. Choosing between India, where I would have gone with NSLIY, and Morocco proved difficult. It was a great problem to have, and when I set out this fall, I would have never expected this. I have had a bit of an obsession with India for the past year, as many of my friends know! I love Hindi music and Indian food, and I did Bollywood dance this fall. However, I love the YES program and truly believe in its goals. I look forward to learning Arabic and French. I can't imagine not seeing my fellow semifinalists again. So in the end, I went with my gut feeling. I know I will make it to India at some time in my life, just not right now!
In general, these programs are very competitive. I don't know how the YES staff chose finalists, because everyone I met in Chevy Chase completely deserved this opportunity. I know it's a cliche to say "be yourself," yet it's the best advice I was given during my application process. Who we are, especially as teenagers, is a work in progress, and representing the many dimensions of our personality on paper or in a short interview is not easy. If you have passion though, your evaluations will reflect this! Remember that you can apply for these exchanges multiple times! One of my good friends, Allie, applied to all three scholarships for her senior year, but was not accepted. She reapplied again this year, and she is headed to Ghana in September! (Here is her blog http://goinggoinggoingghana.weebly.com/) Additionally, these are not the only scholarships available. If you check out the AFS and YFU websites, you will find more scholarships to study abroad! I wish you all the best of luck and please feel free to ask any questions you might have!
No comments:
Post a Comment