South Korea, Here I Come!

Hello world!

This past Wednesday, I found out that CIEE and the Korea Foundation accepted me on a full scholarship to immerse myself in everything South Korea has to offer!  The Korea-US Youth Network annually offers fifty high school students nationwide the ability to spend to weeks in South Korea and experience "Korean culture, language, customs, and daily life."  Here is the website if you'd like to read more about the program!

I began researching summer scholarship programs last year.  After discovering NSLI-Y, I was eager to apply.  However, my mom didn't want me to apply because it was so long (two months in comparison to two weeks) and participants had to stay with a host family throughout the entire trip.  Luckily, another door opened; I discovered this program shortly after.

I found the application process to be relatively easy, especially in comparison to the application for NSLI-Y.  The main components included an essay question detailing how we would improve long-term relationships between Korea and the United States and short answer questions that asked for information about extra-curricular activities and motives for wanting to visit South Korea.  I will post my short answer and essay in a later post, as well as my overall experience completing my application and sending in the finished product!

Although the acceptance/rejection emails were sent just a little bit before noon on June 5th, I didn't read mine until about two o'clock P.M when my mom was talking me home from school.  When I read the email, I started screaming "I'm going to South Korea!"  I repeated that sentence perhaps five hundred times before we reached home.  I immediately called my dad, who unfortunately wasn't able to celebrate in the heat of the moment because he was in a meeting, and then my sisters, who asked, "You applied for a scholarship to South Korea."

#thankgodforinstagram Soon, all of my friends and family were celebrating with me.

Izzy, another applicant that was accepted, quickly made a Facebook group for all of the finalists to meet and mingle.  I had been pretty inactive on the page for the applicants, but I finally introduced myself.  I was beyond thrilled to see what a diverse group CIEE had chosen to embark on this journey.

I am still in shock that in two months I will be in Korea!  I will blog about my flurry of emotions, talking to alumnus of the program, packing for the trip, purchasing a camera, and, of course, the trip itself and my reflection on the experience as a whole.

Let the journey begin.