Ups and Downs

The 11-month program begins with a 2 week language camp. Unfortunately for me, not knowing German, the language camp was sort of a joke. Luckily, I had just graduated high school so I did not need to bring any credit back, because I did not understand my classes for the first 5 months while I was learning German, and after that the coursework was still difficult, even when I understood the lectures.

My area representative was less than helpful, and when I was having problems with my host family she handled the situation horribly.
That being said, I am really glad that I had the experience. I am now fluent in German, and had a wonderful second host family that became very dear to me. This program definitely takes a lot of maturity and it can be very difficult at times to be that far away from home for so long, but it definitely helped me grow as a person and learn a lot about the world around me.

In addition, it's a very inexpensive way to travel abroad, as the scholarship covers almost everything except airfare from Washington, D.C.