Veni. Vidi. Vici.
The famous words of the great Julius Caesar.
They translate to this:
I came. I saw. I conquered.
And that's how I feel.
I don't even remember writing that post I apparently wrote last year. I just remember always saying I would apply, and try, and try.
The summer was full of my attempts at practicing writing essays (I tried to apply to AFS's scholarship to Japan. But my heart wasn't fully set on it); reading tons of blogs, and figuring out what I wanted to do with my life.
The day the YES Abroad Application came out, I flew to my laptop and began writing essays. It became draft after draft after draft, most of the original scraps of my essays saved on a file and bits and pieces can be found in the final drafts. During the process, I also applied for NSLI-Y, my heart set on South Korea.
Perhaps I should explain what these programs are.
Kennedy-Lugar Yes Abroad
This is a wonderful program funded by the U.S. Department of State, to take 65 students from the United States of America, to Muslim populated countries. The goal of the program is to create cross-cultural understanding, as well as intercultural learning experiences to all those involved. This amazing scholarship not only sends United States students abroad, but also students from various Muslim populated countries, to the United States for a year!
For those who are wondering, the countries the U.S. sends are as follows:
India, Indonesia (that's where I'm headed!), Thailand, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Turkey, Macedonia*, Philippines*, Malaysia, Ghana, South Africa, Morocco, Oman, Egypt**, Tunisia**, and Mali**.
*These two countries were just added this year, so some lucky students get to be pioneers for these countries!
**These countries were deemed unsafe by the U.S. Department of State, and were terminated for the 2014-15 academic year, though they may open up in the future!
In addition, this program lets you rate the countries you like in the order of which you'd most like to go, but the choice is based off of what the YES team feels like is a good fit for you. Indonesia was my original first, though India stole the official spot for my application. But all those feelings about Indonesia I had months before are flooding back. I'm in love.
This program is competitive in my opinion, but in others it's easier to get into than the one below.
National Security Language Initiative for Youth
This is an equally phenomenal program that allows students to venture into the wonderful world of languages! While students will live in another country for a year, the main focus is to learn languages that were said to be critical by the United States.
A few hundred students will venture abroad, but the country choice is not up to them. Depending on the languages you apply for (you can only apply for up to 3), and how long you choose to go (NSLI-Y offers summer and year programs, as opposed to YES which only offers year).
The programs offered are:
Russian, Persian*, Chinese, Korean, Turkish, Arabic, and Hindi.
*Persian is only offered for a summer program.
For Chinese you may be placed in China or Taiwan. Arabic, perhaps Oman or Morocco, or even Jordan! The list goes on depending on what language you are chosen for, and where you are placed!
This program is very competitive, with over 3500 applicants for this year alone.
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I suppose I should also mention CBYX, the Congress Bundestag Youth Exchange, though I know very little about it! It is also a Department of State scholarship, that sends students from all across the country to Germany for a year. This program lets you work on the language, as well as form a stronger relationship with Germany. All of my friends who applied received this scholarship, so I'm not sure on the competitiveness! I did not apply to this program.
So those are all of the programs, and I am happy to say that the K-L Yes Abroad Team has chosen me to represent my country with 3 other girls, in Indonesia!
I can't even explain my super awesome excited-ness. I'll explain all of that in another post, but right now I just want to say that I did in fact go to IPSE (The In Person Selection Event), I saw all of the wonderful, deserving people, and somehow I conquered by triumphing and succeeding in becoming a scholar! I can't wait to get this year started!
-Baillie
