Youth For Understanding (YFU)

I was a summer program exchange student to rural Germany in high school, in the summer between sophomore and junior years; I was 14.5 when I applied. I picked YFU as one of two exchange programs that operated in my school district in suburban Seattle, WA. I applied and listed four countries I would like to visit in an immersion program. After I applied, YFU contacted me and began providing support within the first week. I was asked to narrow my request to one country, and selected Germany, since I'd been studying German in H.S. for two years at that point. After my application to Germany was accepted, the high level of support continued. I was given a full itinerary of the flight to Germany, given a list of packing ideas, given the opportunity to ask questions, and matched with an amazing family in rural Germany. The trip itself was chaperoned and quite safe, even though we outbound students tended to get rowdy at times. :) I had one of the longest journeys as I had to fly cross-country to get to Germany, and then had to travel the furthest possible once in Germany, from the dispersal city in Hamburg to my host family near the border with Austria. Again, the travel was chaperoned on the train and at the terminal train station. They didn't leave us out of their sight until a family member showed up to claim each of us. My time in Germany was incredibly warm, welcoming, interesting, and flew by so fast. My host family are some of the most generous people I've ever met, and really helped me understand people who are different from me. On several facets, they and I are so different. But we really connected as humans trying out this type of immersive relationship for ourselves. I learned so much about human nature; why never to judge a book by its cover; how to agree to disagree on some stuff, more lessons on forgiveness, etc. All along the way, YFU was in contact with me and making sure everything was going well. There were a couple exchange student meet-ups in the region and I got to reunite with some of the passengers on our initial flight. The support and care continued after I got home, and I ended up immediately volunteering to meet exchange students coming in to Sea-Tac Airport and make sure they got their connecting flight or united with their host families in the Seattle area, at the age of 16. I hope this review helps you make a decision to take the plunge and involve yourself in such a rewarding and mind-blowing experience. So many of the seeds of knowledge planted during my visit to Germany didn't germinate right away, but I am still reaping the harvest. Thank you, YFU!

Before I review YFU Belgium (Walloonia and Brussels) I would first like to say that each country and region has its own YFU office and I am specifically review YFU Walloonia and Brussels. Every program has its positives and negatives. I'll start with the positives. This program creates a strong connection between the students studying abroad. Also, all of the administrative parts of studying abroad are handled very well by the program. There is also a fun trip to Paris and a couple of day trips. With that being said, the negatives of this program far outweigh the positives. The program is way overpriced ($10,000 compared to $5,000 of Rotary), the president of YFU Walloonia and Brussels is a very rude, inconsiderate man, and there is a major lack of vetting of the families. Also, they are consistently short of families. It created a few problems for me and a few other students in the program. If you plan on studying abroad, I highly suggest Rotary International and AFS. Both programs are cheaper, provide better family support, and include many more trips.

I've wanted to study abroad for as long as I can remember, but I had also decided it was completely impossible because of how expensive it is. The best discovery of my life was YFU's scholarships. Thanks to the Japan-America Friendship Scholarship, I was able to spend a month and a half in Japan for only $3000, including airfare, when it would have $12,000 without the scholarship. Some of the other, though harder to win, scholarships made the trip completely free and even gave the students other gifts like tickets to Tokyo Disney. The application fee to apply in the first place was a little expensive, but it ended up being completely worth it. Since YFU gives out a LOT of scholarships, it seems as though most people that apply end up winning. Host families are all over the country and are picked according to matching interests. Be careful when you discuss your interests, because this is how families are matched, so if you aren't truthful, you won't end up with a good fit for you. Be honest, and you will find a family for life. Before going to Japan, there is an orientation in California. Sadly, my scholarship's funding got cut a little bit this year, so the other scholarships had a three day long orientation and mine was only one day. Still, they covered all the important parts, and really only had to cut out the games that the longer orientations played. I was placed on the border of Osaka and Nara. At first, this frightened me because I had heard that Osaka had a difficult dialect. However, I quickly realized that this was hardly an issue. I absolutely loved my location, as I was smack in the middle of some of the best cities in the country. Nara is famous for its docile deer that you can simply walk up to and pet. Kyoto, which was a half hour train ride from my house, is one of the most beautiful places in the country. If you ever see a picture of a beautiful temple or shrine in Japan, there's a decent chance it was taken in Kyoto. Osaka itself is a bustling city full of awesome places to shop, and houses Universal Studios. The amount of time you attend school depends on your host school. Some of my fellow exchange students were attending school the entire time they were there. For me, I was only in school for about 9 days. I was assigned two buddies who were especially good at English to help me get around, and for one period every day all of the exchange students (three year long students from Estonia, the US, and Hungary, and two summer students, me and one other American girl) got together to help each other. On my last day, my classmates threw me a small surprise party. Though it was a little sad to only see class 2-9 for such a short time, it gave me more time to explore the country, and I still got to play with the tennis team so I still got time to hang out with my schoolmates. One issue I had, which was out of YFU's control, was my host family. They were, sadly, one of the few host families who had hosted without realizing that they were ill equipped to host. It was only a dad and a daughter. The daughter completely ignored me (she later blamed it on shyness) and the host dad worked all the time, though he did try his best to be a good host parent. I have talked to many other exchange students, and this is a very uncommon issue. However, this did expose one of YFU's best qualities, which is their support system. My local area rep was more than happy to meet up with me several times and talk with me when I was having issues. My host family never took me out anywhere, so my area rep took me to see some very cool things on his own expense. I had the chance to move families, but decided not to take it since I decided that it would be too much drama in such a short time period. As a silver lining, I did develop a great deal of independence and was able to see a lot of Japan on my own or with other exchange students. All in all, I would absolutely recommend this with all of my heart. Like all exchanges, there will be hard times and nobody will be happy with every part of their exchange. However, this is an amazing chance to grow as a person, live in another culture, and have what will easily be the most life changing summer of your life. If you are even considering applying for a scholarship, do it. You'll never know where you might end up.