The Congress Bundestag Youth Exchange Program (or CBYX) is a program funded by the American Congress and the German Bundestag (parliament). It allows 250 students from the United States to spend a year on full scholarship to study abroad in Germany with host family for a year. The scholarship includes pretty much everything except your trip getting to Washington D.C, your discretionary expenses (clothing, gluttony, etc.) and your dental insurance. Not kidding, either. I found out about the CBYX program in June of 2012 and had been patiently (not) waiting for the application to be released, which happened in November of 2012. I found out about this program simply by internet searches. The application was long and arduous, but I got through it. I submitted it in the beginning of January 2013. Oh by the way, if anyone has questions or is interested in foreign exchange, please feel free to ask questions!
OK, so let me talk about the next part of the application process. I had an online application, which consisted of mostly general info, my transcript, but also included six essays and a host family letter. Then when I got selected to go to an interview, I had to go to Richmond to interview. There were 25 of us there, twice as many girls as guys, which is true in general, which increased my chance as a male... of getting in. My interview was about 30 minutes long, and it was well.... terrifying, it really was. The rest of the interview consisted of group interaction, which involved a variety of mini projects. Sorry, I can't go into the interview much more, because I can't really talk about it. One thing that was interesting was that more than half of the interviewees were planning on going in their senior year or as a gap year. A few were planning on going as a junior, and only two were planning on going as a sophomore. I was one of two. Then they had an info session for the parents, and then the wait began....
CBYX is kind of hard to explain because of its strange structure. CBYX divides the country into 5 regions, each with their own foreign exchange organization. Being in Virginia and thus in the Southeast Region, I had to apply to the foreign exchange program called CIEE. CBYX itself isn't really a program- it's hard to explain and you'll just have to trust me on this.
Now, to the present....
I wouldn't be writing all this unless I had gotten accepted, but yes, I did get accepted on April 1, 2013. Yay! Once I had gotten accepted I had to fill out a horrendous application that contained for information about me, like my likes and dislikes, so that they could place me with a host family. I hope to get my host family by the end of this month. Last Friday they sent us out an e-newsletter about how to deal with our school credits and whatnot. I had already had that pretty much down pat with my school, as they were very open to flexing with me in order to get my credits. As of right now, I will be able to get everything but my second English class, which I will have to make up some how, probably through summer school or something. Anyway, concerning German, I speak no German whatsoever, and I am planning on getting a tutor over the summer to help me. Once again, if you have questions, feel free to ask!
Aaron C.
