If you are the type of person who desperately wants to travel but doesn’t have an enormity of immediately available funds, this one’s for you.
Throughout the years, you may have heard of or come across an individual, possibly many individuals, who had studied abroad for at least a portion of their education. These kids have guts. They just do. All of them. These are the types of kids who willingly left their homes for a very long time, only to find themselves in an often completely alien environment with little to no experience or understanding. They jump head first into another culture and wiggle their way right into the tight grasp of another loving family.
Many of the kids who do this pay upwards of ten-thousand dollars to study abroad for one year. That is a lot of money. A lot a lot of money. Don’t get me wrong; if you have any opportunity at all to study abroad for an extended period of time then I completely suggest you do so -- even if it means draining the bank account. But for all of you who, like me, can’t afford a rate of tuition reminiscent of the United States’ secondary school system for only one semester or one year of schooling, you probably think that it is impossible. I thought so too.
I was wrong.
The simple fact is that the United States government is essentially begging you to take their money and use it on a year abroad. There are a multitude of US Government scholarships and grants out there just waiting to be cashed in. All you have to do is be excited, willing to learn, and fill out an application. Of course, these programs are selective, but if you’re reading this then you are probably already the correct type of person for these opportunities.
During my Junior year of high school (11th grade), I lived with a host family is southwestern Germany. I had applied and been awarded the CBYX scholarship the previous spring. I went along with roughly three-hundred high school aged kids and several groups of university students.
The CBYX (Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange) is a one hundred percent scholarship and gives the awardee a year of studying abroad in Germany. This, however, is not the only program out there waiting for you. There are several other programs which are facilitated by the United States Department of State. Another popular opportunity lays within NSLI-Y, which is another one hundred percent scholarships in which the awardee is offered the opportunity to live and attend school within a dominantly Muslim country (i.e. Turkey, Egypt, Oman, Bosnia and Herzegovina etc.).
There truly is something out there for everyone, and if you are at all interested in living and studying abroad, on the Government’s dime, I strongly suggest you look into an opportunity such as these.
A year spent studying abroad is unlike any other possible experience for a young, adventurous person. Although you are losing a year at home with family and friends, you gain so much more that you probably otherwise wouldn’t have.
