CBYX for Young Professionals

On February 25th, I received an email telling me I was chosen as one of the 75 participants for the Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange for Young Professionals program. Out of 640 applications, 140 were interviewed, and 75 were chosen. Wow.... words cannot explain how excited I was. So it's official.... I'm moving to Germany!!!

So for my friends and family who may not know all the details, I thought I'd explain what CBYX is...

What is the CBYX Program?
The CBYX Program for Young Professionals (which is very different than the high school CBYX program) is a year long work-study scholarship program that promotes cultural exchange for people aged 18-24 who have professional experience in their field of study. For me, although I am a communications major, I will be working somewhere business/accounting related since that is what I ultimately want to do and have experience in. The US Congress and the German Bundestag (Parliament) finance the program (all expenses paid!) which is... awesome.

What does the program entail?

• Two months at an intensive language school (either in Cologne, Radofsvell, or Saarbrucken, depending on your German language ability). We don't find out our language school placements until June. We move in with a temporary host family during this time.
• 4 months at a German University. We move to our permanent placements with our permanent host family at the end of September (we find out the state we will be moving to in July but won't know the city until September!) Then we start school in October, not for class credit, but just to observe German in a natural context and improve our German, etc.
• 5 months at an internship in our field of study. We begin looking for this on our own in November and start it in February.

We do the internship until July and then have two weeks off for traveling, then fly back to New York City where we have our end of year seminar in mid-July 2011. We're not allowed to return to the US at all for the duration of the program.

For more detailed information on the program and how to apply, go to the link below.

http://www.cdsintl.org/fellowshipsabroad/cbyx.php

We all meet in Washington D.C. on July 29th at Georgetown University, then from there we go to Germany on July 31st.

And the countdown begins....