Unlike most people who have the opportunity to scour the internet and do research on a program’s application process before they apply, I was working on a deadline and I didn’t have that type of time. And while that ended up working out for me, I wouldn’t recommend it.
In late 2019, as a junior, I applied for CBYX CIEE — a high school exchange program that would’ve allowed me to spend an entire year with a host family over in Germany. My family and I were confident about my chances. Until, COVID-19 hit. And then, almost immediately, my plans, of living in another country and gaining the type of independence that teenagers can only dream of, went straight out the window.
By the time a lot of the travel restrictions were lifted or at least had lessened, I had already graduated high school and was about to turn eighteen. As far as I knew, the program was only offered to high school students and those who were wanting to take a gap year. I couldn’t sacrifice the lease I had signed and the plans I had made to move to Oregon for school. Especially not for a program that I wasn’t sure I would even be accepted into. Not to mention, the idea of spending another year in high school, even if it was in another country, wasn’t exactly appealing.
And so, as time passed, I began to forget about the program.
My brain became focused on where life was currently trying to push me, even if those things weren’t necessarily making me happy. I was attending community college and attempting to pursue a degree that didn’t align with my interests. I was working at a chain bookstore for long hours and low pay. And I was lacking the friends and community that I had once envisioned having. But I did have my boyfriend.
And, one night, as we were sitting beside each other and scrolling on our phones, we started to talk about our futures. Where have you always wanted to travel? Would you ever live out of the country? What’s one country that you would live in if you got the chance? Immediately, Germany popped into my head, and I was reminded of the program that I had applied for around four years ago.
I couldn’t stop myself from going silent and opening up a new browser tab to look up the program. To my surprise, applications were open. And not just for their high school program. They had a total of three opportunities for people to live abroad, and I just so happened to be eligible for one of them: the CBYX Young Professionals program, which you can learn more about here.
And, even though I had barely discovered this young professionals program, I applied that night. Or at least tried to. I wasn’t going to let this opportunity pass me by. Not when I had been so close last time.
The Process
The application process to the CBYX Young Professionals program consists of four main sections: the general application, the essay questions, the document submission, and the letter of recommendation.
The General Application
This is the arguably the easiest portion of the application, and there isn’t much information or advice that can be given. If you’ve filled out an application for a university, scholarship, or job before, then you already know exactly what to expect. And if you haven’t, then I’m sure you’ll still be just fine.
Keep in mind, you will be asked about your target internship field and previous experience within the field. And while having that previous experience isn’t necessary, it is something that would strongly improve your chances of moving on to the interview phase.
Example Questions: Who’s your emergency contact? Have you had any experience studying German? Who is your state U.S. Representative?
The Essay Questions
Attached to the general application are a set of essay questions. For my application, I had four questions that I needed to answer, and the word limit for these responses was 200 or less. These were the questions that I needed to answer along with my responses:
- Why do you want to spend a year in Germany rather than in another country? Consider including specifics about what you expect to learn/experience as a young ambassador on the CBYX program. Upon learning that I needed to study a language for two years, I wasn’t sure what to do. Spanish was eliminated. I had my family for that. American Sign Language wasn’t a choice. My sister had claimed it, and she did not want to be in any classes with me. So, German it was. Choosing to study German based on the process of elimination turned out to be the best thing I would ever do. The following years were spent studying and immersing myself in the German language and culture as much as I could considering I was a teenage girl living in Texas. I was bringing my passion for German into my other classes. I baked German food dishes, I wrote reports about German literature, and gave oral German history reports. Despite being out of high school and no longer studying German, my passion for it has not died. To answer directly, I want to spend a year in Germany instead of another country because I want to try to make an impact on Germany and its people as much as they have made an impact on me.
- What factors influenced your choice of professional field and what are your long-term career goals? Because my parents were both people of color, I never really fit in. [Redacted]. I had no choice but to make friends through books. The few times one of the main characters looked like me, I felt like I was on cloud nine. It’s indescribable to know that this character you look up to, also happens to resemble you. As I read more, I began to find it wasn’t uncommon for people to struggle finding a book that they related to. Even as a kid, that devastated me. I want everyone to have the ability to walk into a bookstore, and pick up a book featuring a character that they can identity with. By being a literary agent, I would have the ability to find authors with stories that need telling. I would be able to help get those stories published and sold. My career goals consist of creating a network of publishing professionals who are looking to do the same thing and having writers know that their stories and their voices are safe with me.
- Tell us about a challenge you have navigated in your life. What was your approach and how did you adapt? While I am the most proud of this response, I have chosen to omit it from this post due to the fact that it touches on personal matters that I am not currently willing to share with the general public.
- In what ways will you try to find community in Germany? Finding community can be life changing, but it can also be extremely difficult. While in Germany, I plan on experimenting with different ways to share my culture and learn about the culture of others. One of the ideas that I’m most excited for is starting a local book club. With my love for literature, I think that it would be fun to go back and forth with German natives recommending books to read. One month we could read a book that is popular within or originates from my culture, and the next month, one of them could recommend a book. It would be interesting to see if there is any overlap, and if there’s any connections we can make about the way that the media we consumed as children and adults has made an impact on us. I would also like to find local community events and participate, whether that be as a guest or as a volunteer. It will be exciting to discover the ways that the average German finds their people and the place that they belong. I’ve always had a love for other people, and I’m excited to share more of that love.
As a writer and professional yapper, limiting my responses to be under two hundred words was a challenge, and it wasn’t one that I can say I enjoyed. But, at the end, I did successfully manage to write four essay answers that I’m at least somewhat proud of by doing the following:
- Making sure my responses sound true to me
It’s not necessary to make your essay answers sound like they belong in a textbook or job application. In fact, you should probably try to do the exact opposite. Make your answers feel like they’re excerpts from your memoir. At the end of the day, this program is about the strengthening of relationships and the sharing of cultures, and the people running this program are looking for those who stand out. Those who they think show just how diverse and all encompassing the United States of America is. They’re not looking for someone who is exactly like everyone else.
- Showing off my skills
While you want to sound personable in your responses, you should also try to make sure that you are showing those who run the program that you have the skills and traits that they’re looking for in a cultural ambassador. For example, you don’t blatantly need to say that you’re adaptable, but instead, maybe you can find a way to describe a time where things didn’t go as expected and yet you still managed to go with it. Your words are limited, so each one of them needs to be purposeful and spent showing off who you are.
- Not feeling embarrassed
Unlike me, you probably won’t be reading these responses months after you’ve written them and sharing them with everyone on the internet. Odds are that as soon as you send in these responses, you’ll have no idea who’s going to be looking at or reading them. And you’ll probably never know who did. They will likely never interact with you. This means that you shouldn’t be afraid to write about something that’s close to your heart or personal to you especially if it helps you answer one of their essay questions. I definitely wasn’t afraid (as you can tell by my plethora of redacted statements), and I’d say that it worked out pretty well for me. Putting your heart out there allows for people to connect with you, to understand why you so badly want or even need to go on this exchange. It will show them that you’re willing to do whatever it takes to get this opportunity. And who doesn’t love an eager, confident applicant?
- Answering the question
This one may sound a little obvious, but I think it’s important to remember to answer the question that you’re being asked. This doesn’t mean that you need your answer to be blunt or that it needs to take up the entire word limit. Sometimes, I find that the story you tell along with the context you provide to your answer can give the reader a lot more information and insight into who you are than the actual answer itself can. Don’t be afraid to build up to your answer, but also don’t forget to include it.
*Please keep in mind that the fourth essay question was not recorded or copied down at all in my notes. But, based on my essay answer, I can imagine that the actual question was at least somewhat similar
The Document Submission
Towards the end of your application, after all the general questions and short essays, you will be asked to submit photos of the following documents: a recent transcript, a birth certificate or passport, a high school diploma or other proof of high school graduation, and an updated resume.
For most people, this is the easiest part of the application. All of these documents are usually already stored in their house and are easily accessible.
This was not the case for me.
Having a Mexican mother means having a mother who typically thinks that she knows best, and when I decided to move states, she decided it would be best if she held onto my birth certificate, high school diploma, and other important documents. Even if she was going through multiple moves of her own and was just as likely to lose them as me.
Being only two weeks away from the application deadline, I couldn’t submit the application without my documents. And I couldn’t submit my documents without having the birth certificate. Everyday, I pestered my mother until she sent it out. And everyday, I checked the tracking and worried until it finally arrived.
Here’s my biggest tip for you when it comes to this portion of the application: have your documents with you and ready to go, and if your parents are holding onto them for you, cross your fingers and hope that they mail them quickly.
The Letter of Recommendation
After you submit your application and supporting documents, you will be asked to submit a letter of recommendation.
Other than finding someone to write the letter and sharing a link for them to upload it to, there’s little involvement that you need to have on this portion of the application process.
Though, my biggest advice would be to ask someone who you’ve worked with professionally to write it for you. In my case, I asked the founder of the literary agency that I had previously interned at, and despite that the deadline was quickly approaching, she was an angel and gladly decided to write it for me.
The Next Steps
After you finish submitting everything, there’s nothing to do except wait.
I submitted my application by the end of September. I received confirmation that my application, documents, and letter of recommendation had been received towards the end of November. I checked my email and wondered when I would hear back the entire month of December. And I received my invitation to interview in January.
This means that there were only ten weeks in between when I submitted my application and when I heard back, but, to me, it felt like an eternity. And then, both waiting and preparing for the interview were an entirely different ordeal that I’ll save for another blog post (here).
In the end, this application process is probably nothing when compared to all the other things you’ve done in your life. The only difference is that it feels like there’s a lot more at stake which means it also feels like there’s a lot more pressure. But, don’t let that intimidate you. I believe in you, and I wish you the best of luck.
P.S. Here are some other blogs that were useful to me, even if I didn’t stumble across them until after I had submitted my application: Paige Censale and Maggie Without Borders.
If you have plans to apply for CBYX Young Professionals or anything similar, gather all your necessary documents ahead of time, draft your essay answers and allow someone to read over them, follow the advice given in this post, and learn more about the program by checking out my other posts.
Leave a Reply