Did you know it is possible to spend a school year abroad? I certainly did not just two years ago. At the time I was just hanging out in my mom’s friend’s house while they were chatting, then the topic came up about how a friend of their daughter had spent a year in the US without any costs. I immediately got interested and decided to look into the program. From then I discovered the program called Kenedy-Ludger Youth and Exchange (YES) whose purpose was to socialize the US with Muslim populated countries and give students a chance to study abroad. I applied without thinking much of it, it seemed so absurd that I’d actually win the scholarship they offered, but here I am writing this article.
I am from Turkiye, a country right in the middle of Europe and Asia, just below Russia. Unfortunately the funding for my program, YES has been canceled. If it had not been for that, I would encourage the students here to apply to it for a chance of scholarship to study abroad, but unfortunately that is not the case anymore. But I do have another organization which I am associated with, and that is called AFS Intercultural Program.
The AFS program placed me with a host family early this year and takes care of my needs, worries and questions during my time here. Even though that program is not fully sponsored, and to participate you need to pay an amount, it is still such an awesome opportunity. With my program I did not have a say where I wanted to go, but with students who are with AFS you get the opportunity to choose from over 45 different countries. Wherever you would like, for however much time you want, depending on the program. The programs offered are summer, semester, trimester and year program.
These program made it possible for me to come here and meet several amazing people, and now I can with confidence say that I have friends from around 15 different countries. Some of these countries being America, Tunisia, India, Thailand, Germany, France, Chile, Japan, Kosova, Georgia, Uruguay, Spain, Indonesia, Pakistan, and Argentina. It’s an amazing opportunity to open yourself to new cultures and people from all over the world, something I thought I couldn’t do. But after a year-long process for the YES program I proved that I could accomplish this. So, my belief is that, if someone wants to do something as much as I wanted to do this, you will accomplish it.