Hello, everyone! Welcome to my blog. So, for those of you who don't know me, my name is Jacob. I am starting a blog for several reasons. First, I want to document my senior year of high school. Second, I want to document my wonderful exchange year for myself. Third, I want to share my year with my family and friends.
For the rest of this post I am going to provide some context
Now, I found out a little more than three months ago that I have been chosen as a KL-YES Abroad scholarship recipient for the 2018-19 school year. I'm sure most of you are unfamiliar with this scholarship program, so I will be linking the website, but at it's core, the KL-YES Abroad scholarship is a program that sends and receives exchange students from countries around the world. I will be focusing on the outbound program, because that is what I will be doing in the following year. The outbound program sends 65 American high schoolers to one of 13 countries: Macedonia, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ghana, Senegal, India, Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Turkey, Jordan, and Morocco. Out of these amazing countries, I will be spending my senior year in the beautiful Philippines! The YES Abroad program offers an all inclusive scholarship to study abroad in one of the 13 countries for an academic year in order to promote greater cultural understanding and a global experience. The scholarship is fully funded by the US State Department and implemented by 3 organizations: AFS, Amideast, and American Councils. My implementing organization is AFS.
I found out in March that I had been selected for this amazing program ! Currently, it is nearing the end of June and I recently found out that I will be leaving my hometown of Stafford, Virginia (about 40 miles south of Washington D.C) for Los Angeles on July 17th, 2018. I will be having a one day gateway orientation with the four other Philippines finalists from July 17th - July 18th 2018. Then, I will be flying out of LAX the next morning where I will have several layovers. The first layover will be in Portland. Next, I will be flying from Portland to Tokyo. Once landed in Tokyo, I will have a short layover and finally land in Manila on the evening of the July 19th, It is more than an entire day of traveling to get to Manila, which I am not super excited for, but the year that follows most definitely! I am already dreading saying goodbye to my friends and family, about saying goodbye to my life here in the states, but I am so incredibly excited to learn about another culture first hand, in the most intimate of settings. A host family!
I am so, so excited to be using this blog to document my exchange year and my amazing adventure! My next entry will be next week after my National Pre Departure Orientation (PDO) which is where I will meet all of the other YES kids, make embassy and state department visits, as well as begin to prepare for my exchange year! It is being held in DC, so I am not traveling very far, but other kids are coming from across the country! See you then
- Jacob
For the rest of this post I am going to provide some context
Now, I found out a little more than three months ago that I have been chosen as a KL-YES Abroad scholarship recipient for the 2018-19 school year. I'm sure most of you are unfamiliar with this scholarship program, so I will be linking the website, but at it's core, the KL-YES Abroad scholarship is a program that sends and receives exchange students from countries around the world. I will be focusing on the outbound program, because that is what I will be doing in the following year. The outbound program sends 65 American high schoolers to one of 13 countries: Macedonia, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ghana, Senegal, India, Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Turkey, Jordan, and Morocco. Out of these amazing countries, I will be spending my senior year in the beautiful Philippines! The YES Abroad program offers an all inclusive scholarship to study abroad in one of the 13 countries for an academic year in order to promote greater cultural understanding and a global experience. The scholarship is fully funded by the US State Department and implemented by 3 organizations: AFS, Amideast, and American Councils. My implementing organization is AFS.
I found out in March that I had been selected for this amazing program ! Currently, it is nearing the end of June and I recently found out that I will be leaving my hometown of Stafford, Virginia (about 40 miles south of Washington D.C) for Los Angeles on July 17th, 2018. I will be having a one day gateway orientation with the four other Philippines finalists from July 17th - July 18th 2018. Then, I will be flying out of LAX the next morning where I will have several layovers. The first layover will be in Portland. Next, I will be flying from Portland to Tokyo. Once landed in Tokyo, I will have a short layover and finally land in Manila on the evening of the July 19th, It is more than an entire day of traveling to get to Manila, which I am not super excited for, but the year that follows most definitely! I am already dreading saying goodbye to my friends and family, about saying goodbye to my life here in the states, but I am so incredibly excited to learn about another culture first hand, in the most intimate of settings. A host family!
I am so, so excited to be using this blog to document my exchange year and my amazing adventure! My next entry will be next week after my National Pre Departure Orientation (PDO) which is where I will meet all of the other YES kids, make embassy and state department visits, as well as begin to prepare for my exchange year! It is being held in DC, so I am not traveling very far, but other kids are coming from across the country! See you then
- Jacob
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