sarah nguyen

On Tuesday the 18th, I received the official acceptance letter from ASSE. I think mine came a little late because they wrote a ‘1′ instead of a ‘4′ for my address (I got this fixed). The letter’s about three pages long. Summary of the more interesting parts:

• They’ll need to approve your final application before you’re officially accepted. My mom made me clarify this with Sandy Chase, my rep, and Sandy told me that she already received the list of those who had problems with their final application and I wasn’t on it, so I’m golden.
• The final application will be sent to Germany where it’ll be shown to prospective host families (eek!). After we know my host family, I’ll get a placement form/other docs that I’ll need to apply for my residence permit.
• ASSE will be sending a series of information letters at certain intervals to guide everyone through the process leading to departure. International flight details will be sent in May - I’ll know exactly what day I leave then o.o
• I’m responsible for the flight to Wash, D.C., but ASSE can help with the flight arrangements (student discount, perhaps?)
• Scholarship covers:

1. Program cost
2. Pre-Departure Orientation in Washington, D.C.
3. Round-trip international airfare
4. Three week Language & Cultural Enrichment (LCE) Program at the beginning of the exchange (We might have different host families during these three weeks than for the rest of the year)
5. Seminars in Weimar (mid-year) and Berlin (end of year)
6. Basic Health Insurance (what does basic mean?)

• The D.C. orientation starts sometime during the first week of August. Less than five months away!
• There might be extra trips available for a fee - I’m thinking places like Paris or Vienna. It could be compared to a trip to SoCal from San Jose. My mom says she’ll probably pay for me to go on a few of these if they’re reasonably priced, so I’m definitely looking forward to that.

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On Monday I received applications of inbound students to check out. There were eight students for us to choose from. I printed out the applications and whisked them to my parents. There was/were:

• 1 girl from Thailand
• 2 girls and 1 boy from France
• 2 girls and 1 boy from Brazil; and
• 1 girl from Germany

My dad skimmed through a few of the apps and thoroughly read the one German girl’s application. After that, he didn’t feel like reading any more and just said “Let’s host her.” Funny, because he was the one most interested in hosting in the first place.

Mom on the other hand looked at all of them, taking notes (example: “saxophone, hard to wake up”). Weird because my mom wasn’t as interested in hosting as my dad before. She particularly enjoyed laughing at the letters (one girl, describing a typical day, wrote “Then I take a shower” three times). We ended up picking the girl from Germany, because she liked her letter and because she wanted to get some German practice in.

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Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Kelly Hill, a CBYX finalist from the Northeast. Get in touch with her at dewuski(at)yahoo(dot)com.

I’m soooo excited to be going to Germany with CBYX! It is great to be able to share experiences with other exchange students across the country (and the World).

So far my experience consists of…

1. Apply
2. Wait
3. Home Interview
4. Wait and fill out more applications
5. Semi-Final Interview
6. Wait and worry
7. Check mail box every day for weeks
8. Wait and worry some more
9. Phone Rings - “oh no, I bet I didn’t get it : (”
10. AHHHHHH I won! I’m so excited
11. excited
12. excited
13. excited
14. excited

Sound familiar to any of you other CBYX’ers and/or exchange students???

I’ve been going shopping to get stuff I think I will need. There is a great book out there called Michelin Germany: Plan Discover Explore. I had the old copy, but I just got the new one for around twenty bucks at Borders. It has history, attractions and cities rated with stars, maps, places to eat, etc. It is great for someone to figure out what they should see and how to get there (it even gives prices and how much time you should allow). It is available for many other countries as well and I really recommend it. My parents used it a lot when they were in Germany.

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On Wednesday afternoon Sandy Chase left a message on the phone telling me to call her back. So Thursday morning, I did, and she said congratulations, because I am a finalist (that is, I am goinggg come late summer)! I told a few of my friends right away and am in the process of telling others when it comes up in conversation (trying to avoid being obnoxious/annoying about Germany). Oh, and I told Mr.Marra, who wrote one of the recs for me, and some of the people who revised my application essays (thanks).

Other than that, Sandy said I should receive an official letter in the mail regarding my acceptance, and we would have at least one orientation before we leave. I asked her who else from my session was accepted, and she said Kira, Joe, and Bianca were - Kira’s the only one I know for sure though because she confirmed it via facebook. The others haven’t gotten in touch with me yet.

Wheeeee, I don’t know what else to say. ^_^

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In my last post I said there were brochures available for us at the interview, and today I scanned them at school for all of you to peruse, yay. Unfortunately, they are in black and white and one is upside down, but I will try to fix both of those problems in the near future. For now, you’ll have to flip the upside down one in Adobe Acrobat. These are in PDF.

You can request the ASSE brochure by emailing ASSE, and you could probably get the other brochures that way as well. The brochures have information that is mostly already on the websites, but they do have new stuff as well. Enjoy!

ASSE Brochure

CBYX Brochure

CBYX Poster

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Today was the final part of my CBYX application, the interview!

There was free food, along with brochures, German cookbooks & yearbooks, world maps and German versions of Douglas Adams book for us to look at. They also had applications from students looking to study here for next year in case any of us wanted to host. There were two current German exchange students and three past CBYX recipients there, one from Germany and two from the US. The two from the US had just gotten married, which was pretty cool (they met on a bus to Paris - how romantic!). There were five interviewers - Sandy Chase, a host mom, two of the former CBYX recipients, and a man that I don’t remember any details about.

At 9 AM we all introduced ourselves and Sandy Chase went over the program really quickly. We get to spend 4 days in Washington, D.C. at the beginning of the program and we all meet there at the end of the program as well. In Germany, we’ll get to take trips to Berlin as well as Weimar.

After that was the group interview, which was in a separate boardroom. There were four others there, and we were given a hypothetical situation to work out and make a presentation on in 20 minutes, while the interviewers watched. I did fine except I accidentally said I was a sophomore for our intro. Oops?

Then came individual interviews. Another girl, Bianca, went before me, and then I went in! I got the seat at the end of the longg boardroom table which was kind of scary, but cool. I think I did really well because I made the interviewers laugh and have a good time (maybe I was too laid back - oh well). But, I kept repeating myself a lot because many of the questions were really similar. My interview was a little bit shorter than Bianca’s.

That’s it! I got everyone’s contact info (seems like a great group of people) and my dad attempted to speak German to one of the exchange students, which was cool. Sandy Chase said about 25 people applied from Northern California, and we should get contacted in about a week about our status. Wooh.

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My parents are possibly hosting an inbound student through the local Rotary district, and I just received an email from Don Fox, one of the people in charge of Rotary Youth Exchange in my area:

Good Morning Sarah,

The applications for the inbounds are starting to arrive and we have the opportunity to select from among them. In other words, although we assumed that we would be hosting a student from Germany, that is not necessarily the case. Your parents (and the other host families) could review a number of applications
and select the student who perhaps shares a hobby, etc. most interests them in some way - perhaps shares a
hobby, etc.

On the other hand if they have their hearts set on a German girl I can see if one is available.

Please let me know as soon as possible.

Thanks,
Don

I forwarded the e-mail to my parents - I think they’re pretty open, though they might want to host a boy more - Don probably got mixed up when he wrote ‘German girl.’ Through Rotary, my parents would only host for one semester, and another family would take care of the other one. I’m excited to look at applications, even though I won’t be around to welcome them, sadly. Sounds super fun!

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On Wednesday I got a call from Sandy Chase to confirm that I received the following email:

Dear Candidates,

The Congress-Bundestag interviews will be taking place on Saturday March 1st, at the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, 2440 West El Camino Real, Suite 300 | Mountain View , California 94040. Attached are directions.

** If you are an AM candidate, please arrive at 8.30 a.m. Interviews will begin promptly at 9 a.m. and end between 12 and 12.30 p.m.

** If you are a PM candidate, please arrive at 1 p.m. Interviews will begin promptly at 1.30 p.m. and end between 4.30 and 5 p.m.

The committee has reviewed your CB applications and we are looking forward to meeting you in person. The committee’s scholarship recommendations will go to the regional office on Monday, March 3. They will then notify all scholarship winners within a week. If you or your parents have any questions about the program, please feel free to e-mail me or call me.

Below is the list noting who is an AM or PM interview:

Name AM or PM

Samuel Vxxxx AM
Joe Axxxx AM
Sarah Nguyen AM
Salim Txxxxxxx AM
Kira Sxxxxxxx AM
Bianca Txxxx AM
Eugene Kxxxxxx PM
Jonathan Pxxxxxxxx PM
Michaela Sxxxxx PM
Gavin Sxxxxxxxx PM
Sophia Mxxxxxx PM
Connie Ix PM

Regards,

Sandy Chase CB Committee Chairman
ASSE International Exchange Student Area Rep

At the end of the call, she said “I’m really glad someone from Lynbrook is applying because…” and I mentioned that my cousin Jennifer knew her daughter, which is kind of weird, but cool.

So from this e-mail it looks like I’ll know by March 10!

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Here are my lovely photo pages that I made for the CBYX application. I used Adobe Photoshop Elements 6.0, which has a neat option to make a photo collage and formats everything for you. I highly recommend it if anyone has a similar project. =D

Page 1

Page 2

PDF Format Copy

1) Yes, my room IS that neat.

2) Everyone at Lynbrook is Asian. =(

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On Thursday I got a lovely letter in the mail (not e-mail). Here it is, word for word:

February 6, 2008

Congratulations on becoming a CBYX semi-finalist. The next phase in selection is the mandatory interview. A committee of teachers, ASSE representatives, and community members will conduct the individual and group interviews in your state. You must attend this interview meeting to be considered for the CBYX scholarship.

Due to the size of some states, you may have to travel some distance to the interview location. For this reason, we schedule the interviews on a Saturday. Please find following more detailed information regarding your interview:

Committee Name: Mountain View, CA

Chairperson: Sandy Chase
(408) xxx-xxxx
xxxxx@sbcglobal.net

Date: Saturday - March 1st, 2008

Time: The Chairperson will contact you regarding your arrival time.

Location: Silicon Valley Community Foundation
2440 West El Camino Real, Suite 300
Mountain View, California 94040

We encourage your parent(s) and/or guardian(s) to accompany you, as facilitators will be on hand to answer questions they may have about the program while you are being interviewed. If you will not be able to make it to the interview, please call and let the Chairperson know.

If you have any other questions, you may contact me via phone or email. Good luck!

Best regards,

Nancy Foster
CBYX Program Director
(949) xxx-xxxx
Nancy
xxxxx@asse.com

Luckily for me, it’s only about 20 minutes away from my house. Woe to anyone who has to go further - ASSE is in charge of all NorCal. Anyway, it should be fun/interesting to meet some other kids going for this. Guess I have to hurry up and finish the second part of the app now. =T

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