Pre-Departure Thoughts

I can hardly believe that within the next few months, I will be moving to Germany for nearly a year. I feel like the luckiest girl alive, like I am living in a fairy tale, or some action-adventure movie. Between wrapping up finals, spending as much time with family and friends before I leave, mentally preparing myself, and attempting to imagine how I am going to pack my entire life into two suitcases, you could definitely say I am one busy girl. Not to mention learning German, I've been studying on and off for the past few months, and now that I'm finally finished with school for the year I'll be able to spend a good deal of time practicing. I have hours of listening tapes, stacks of books, and a couple online courses to take. So far I've fallen in love with the language and I absolutely love practicing for the year ahead. It can be a little overwhelming thinking that I don't know the language that well before I leave, but I also know that I will learn a TON at language camp and that I can't let fears hold me back from accomplishing amazing things. Lots of people have asked me, how can you do this, won't it be hard? And the answer is yes, I know and accept that this will probably be the hardest thing I have ever done. And all I can say is, bring it on!
As the Germans would say, Auf Wiedersehen!

About the Program

If you didn't already know, I have been choosen as one of the 250 students that are being sent to Germany this next year for The Congress Bundestag Youth Exchange (CBYX) Scholarship. This is a program that is jointly funded by the United States Congress and Bundestag (German Parliament.) It was founded in 1983 to promote peace and understanding throughout the two countries. The 250 scholarships are divided regionally throughout the United States, and AYUSA handles the South Western region of the United States. The sisted program of CBYX in Germany is called Parlamentarisches Patenschafts-Programm or PPP and the partner program for AYUSA in Germany is called Partnership International or PI. I also have a support organization to help me prepare and inform my parents of things they need to know while I'm gone, called Youth for Understanding or YFU. If your confused by all the organizations, don't worry, so am I. The cool part, is that this scholarship is entirely funded by the two governments. The only expenses we have to pay for are the flight from our home state to and from Washington D.C. and personal expenses. The program requirements were pretty broad, the only requirements were that you had a 3.0 GPA or higher, be between the ages of 15 and 18, and a U.S. citizen. It is not a requirement to have any prior knowledge of German before going. We spend the first month in a language camp in a small town called Hedersleben, we have a mid-year seminar in Cologne, and a seminar at the end of the program in Berlin. I will be staying with a host family, and I could find out that information anytime from now to when I'm at language camp. I cannot believe I stumbled across such an amazing organization, I am so excited to be a part of this tradition. 

The Application Process

A lot of people have asked me why I chose Germany to live in the next year, and the only answer that I can really come up with is, when the opportunity presented itself, I couldn't say no! It sounds like an amazing experience! The truth is that the entire series of events all began with one weird coincidence. After I got back from Europe for three weeks traveling with People to People Ambassador Programs, I decided that traveling was something that I wanted to have more of in my life, and I began to consider that option of becoming a foreign exchange student. I went to go talk to my counselor about it, who gave me this old, expired list of phone numbers and random letters, (which I later learned stood for the different exchange organizations,) it made absolutely no sense to me at the current time. Well, as it turned out, most of the phone numbers were disconnected at that point, or the people were no longer representatives for those organizations. One of the few that worked was almost identical to the phone number that I had when I was living in Thornton (I grew up there till I was about 10.) My mom took one look at the sheet and said, call this one, I have a good feeling about it. Well, I called, and as it turned out the number actually was working and the woman that answered actually knew valuable information! She mentioned that students from my area could apply for a full-ride scholarship to Germany for a year, and I just asked myself, why not? She sent me a packet in the mail, right around late October, and before I knew it I had applied!

The application was fairly long, I had to type up lots of basic information about my life, a letter that my host family would receive if I was selected, and a few basic short-answer questions about why I was interested in the program and why I am a valuable applicant. I had finished the first application around late November, and around late January the program emailed me and let me know I was considered a "formal applicant." There were around 66 formal applicants, and they sent all of us out to a camp a few hours from Denver in the mountains for interviews and to get to know us better. We also had to complete an extensive secondary application at this point, which included getting required immunizations and even a photo album for our host families to see! Since AYUSA covers all of the kids in the Southwest Region of the United States, a lot of them were flown out for the weekend, and it was all paid for by the program. The weekend was absolutely amazing, all the kids I met were extremely friendly, by the end of the weekend I felt like I had gotten to know everyone and I couldn't believe how similar we all were personality wise. We truly felt like a family after only a few days. 

About a month after the interview weekend, AYUSA let me know that I was a semi-finalist for the program. No, the process still wasn't completely over! Next, they had to send my secondary application to their partner organization, Partner International, (you can see me explain all the confusing program info in the blog titled: About the Program.) Pretty much everyone is approved by Partnership International, and then they finally let me know that I was a finalist! It's been a long application process, and I've gone through a range of emotions throughout the entire thing. But here I am, confident and excited to start this new chapter of my life,   living fearlessly the entire time.