Sunday, February 22, 2009

Global Leaders Scholarship

I would just like to take this opportunity to thank AFS-USA immensely for the Global Leaders scholarship they have awarded me. I am so excited for this adventure, and I am so grateful for the support I have received from AFS, both financially and emotionally. This experience has been my dream for such a long time, and it seems absolutely amazing that it is actually happening. Even though I don't even know what country I'll be going to for sure, I am so happy that I am even getting this chance to be immersed in another culture for an entire year. I have become even more inspired to fundraise on my own in order to fund this year abroad, and when I return from my adventure, I want to be able to help and support others who have a dream of living in a whole other world. It is my dream to become fluent in a whole new language and become comfortable in a brand new culture, and AFS is helping me to achieve this. Thank you, AFS, for letting me be a Global Leaders scholar.

Sunday, February 1, 2009

Interview...

Yesterday Mom and I drove to Schenectady, NY for a 4-hour session in which I had an individual interview and got to meet several other Congress-Bundestag applicants, as well as one of last years recipients. It was kind of stressful- I thought they would ask me about my reasons for applying and why I wanted to go to Germany and all that jazz. Instead they asked totally philosophical questions about impossible situations (their words, not mine). I think I did all right, though, although I kind of spaced out during one of the questions and kept repeating myself. The other applicants confessed to doing that, too, though. Each individual interview took about 20 minutes, so while one person was getting interviewed the rest of us would talk. Last year's recipient, a German guy named Tim, told us a lot about Germany and what it was like to be an exchange student. He was really funny. The other kids were nice, too. I have some really tough competition, though- one of the girls was a senior, and she already got accepted early admittance to Dartmouth!!! I really hope I'm good enough to get one of the 50 scholarships... Anyway, after we all finished our individual interviews, we had a group "interview"- that's what they called it, but it turned out we had to build a tower out of a few sheets of paper, a paper bag, some straws, and some pipe cleaners. Oh, and a roll of scotch tape. Then we sat down afterwards and had a discussion in which the interviewers all wrote furiously. I'm not sure if that's good or bad. Yikes!
I have to wait until early March to find out, so I'm going to spend February working like a maniac to earn money as though I wasn't getting the scholarship. Just in case. Mom says it's like a snow day- if you don't do your homework and prepare, fate will make sure the storm goes the other way.