Ever imagine yourself being in a completely strange country, all alone,
trying to get used to the accents of people there,
trying to learn a language you probably haven’t heard before?
Ever thought that you will be staying with a family of
totally different culture, race, language, colour than yours
and yet be able to treat each other as good as your natural family?
Ever wonder what it is like to be away from Malaysia,
get away from Chong Hwa, your family, your friends,
and everything that you have been so familiar with?
Want to experience some real culture shock
and what it is like to immerse yourself in others’ cultures?
Want to make friends and establish strong relationships
with teenagers from different countries
and share a common experience that will last you for a lifetime?
Lastly,
have you ever heard of student exchange programs?
trying to get used to the accents of people there,
trying to learn a language you probably haven’t heard before?
Ever thought that you will be staying with a family of
totally different culture, race, language, colour than yours
and yet be able to treat each other as good as your natural family?
Ever wonder what it is like to be away from Malaysia,
get away from Chong Hwa, your family, your friends,
and everything that you have been so familiar with?
Want to experience some real culture shock
and what it is like to immerse yourself in others’ cultures?
Want to make friends and establish strong relationships
with teenagers from different countries
and share a common experience that will last you for a lifetime?
Lastly,
have you ever heard of student exchange programs?
let me bring you some news!
Apply to embark on a student exchange program NOW!
AFS (American Field Service) is an organization which helps to coordinate high school student exchange programs, with programs lasting from 2 weeks to 1 year, in a large number of countries across continents.
Check out its website to find out more information. (*click*)
Well my focus in this post is on Youth Exchange & Study (YES) program, which is a 6-month (applicable only for Malaysia, Other participating countries – 1 year) student exchange program to the United States of America, fully sponsored by the Educational and Cultural Affairs Bureau of the U.S. Department of State (aka the U.S. Government) – in short, it’s completely FREE. & you get allowance each month. – after the 911 incident. Basically, countries with a significant number of Muslims will send representatives to join this program.
If you don’t understand the above paragraph, let me put it in simple words.End of story.
- YES Program. 6 months in USA.
- No Americans will come to your house just because you see the word “exchange”, nope, not direct exchange.
- It’s a scholarship, 100% free.
- The U.S. Government sponsors it.
Application is only opened to those studying in Form 5 now.
Applicants will undergo 2 rounds of interviews, one of which will be conducted in a 2 days selection camp (that was what my year did la, I’m not sure if they have changed anything). Since this is a scholarship program, it is very competitive and only 40 (ohno im running out of colours!) students from Malaysia are sent each year.
In this program, you will be hosted by a local family in the U.S., studying in a local high school, … hmm what else is there to say? Can’t think of any now..
Aah. Speaking of scholarships, don’t think that results are EVERYTHING. (typical Chong Hwa mindset) They judge you based on your character and personality MORE than your academic results (which I think, as long as you are not the kind that are seriously failing every subject, you will be just fine.)
So.. Check out the following websites for more information:
http://afsmas.org/mas_ma/home - Official AFS-Malaysia Website
http://www.yesprograms.org/ - Official Website for YES programs
There are also many other student exchange programs, if you are looking for something short, I would recommend the JENESYS program, a 2 weeks program to Japan this December.
The application deadline for all the high school student exchange programs is 30 April 2009.
As a YES Returnee and a Chong Hwa graduate (well not really, I left after SPM and didn’t stay for S.M. 3), let me tell you seriously ah. This is an extremely fascinating program to participate in, a chance for you to make friends with people from all around Malaysia as well as all around the world, a lifetime experience for you to re-discover yourself, and a 6 months well-spent.
Should you have any enquiries, questions or just would like to know how my 6 months in the States were spent last year, you can email me personally at ocioyico[at]gmail.com (Replace [at] with @) or if you prefer msn, mine is oci_oyico[at]hotmail.com (Replace [at] with @).
Please spread this message among your friends, especially those in other classes!
Best Wishes,
Coyin (:
*sorry if the title of the post scared you just now
p.s.: oops i didn't realise sianglunn posted something about this too. Yea about the matter of JPA scholarships clashing with this, we can discuss via email. ^^
