Update

It's official! I have been accepted to AFS and I WILL be going next year!

This was a LOT sooner than I expected, but I'll be finding out my host family much later than I thought. I will know where I'm living and with whom probably sometime in July or maybe even August. Can't wait!

Application Update

Some updates!

I have sent in my complete application and am awaiting edits, had my interview with my local AFS volunteer, and updated my store - there are now actual products!

But most excitingly, I have been accepted into AFS-USA! The application process is in two parts - first, AFS-USA accepts my application, then they send it to AFS-France. AFS-France must still accept me and place me with a host family, but all the same, I am halfway there!

I will know if I have been accepted completely in three to six weeks.

Bienvenue!

Hello! My name is Julia. I am currently a high school freshman at the Center for Global Studies in Connecticut. I have applied to go abroad next year, from September 2012 to July 2013, to France through the American Field Service (AFS) student exchange program. Here at home, I keep myself very busy with learning French and Arabic in school, spending time with friends and family, volunteering at the Westport Historical Society, being in my local Youth Symphony, playing softball, ballroom dancing, skiing, acting, and competing in Future Problem Solving Program International. I also enjoy playing flute, piano, and harp.

I have wanted to go abroad since I was in 6^th grade, and I’ve wanted to travel even longer. France has always seemed the obvious choice to me because of the history, food (!), and culture. As a freshman, I am in French III, and I have been studying for nearly four years. All the same, I am far from fluent, which is one of the main reasons I want to spend a year in France. Though I am nervous about spending a year away from my family, friends, and hometown, I think I am ready to take this step. I believe it will change me in so many ways I can hardly imagine, in addition to the ones I can. Not only do I hope to become a cultural ambassador and be fluent in French, I also want to experience living with another family in another culture. AFS has made that possible, and I hope you will consider helping me too by donating to my tuition through Sponsor an AFSer. This is a tool that helps students raise money by providing a form for their blogs that takes secure payments from contributors and deposits them straight into a student's tuition account.

Hopefully, I will be able to raise enough money for this experience of a lifetime! My goal is to raise half of the cost of the trip. I am working on earning and raising money in several ways, but I do still need help to make this dream real. Thank you for taking interest in my blog and learning about me and my dream. Whatever you are able to give is greatly appreciated – no amount is too small! Every little bit will help me get a step closer.

To sponsor my AFS program, please click the ChipIn button to make a secure donation. I would be so grateful it if you would consider forwarding a link to my blog (http://thefrenchyear.blogspot.com/) to anyone you think could be interested in sponsoring my AFS experience through donation or would be interested in learning about another culture through the eyes of a traveling teen. I will be keeping this blog throughout my year overseas.

To learn more about Sponsor an AFSer, go to this link.

Thank you and merci beaucoup,

Julia