NY by Alina

NY by Alina - December 2016 Scholarship Essay

The school accomplishment I am most proud of is the fellowship I received to volunteer and intern in Germany. The fellowship was highly competitive, but the reason I am most proud has more to do with what I have been able to do with the fellowship. This exchange has opened more doors for me than I ever would have imagined, and I am incredibly proud to be representing my country as a young professional ambassador through it.
This year, I am taking a leave of absence from my home school (note: I am still enrolled as a student) and am volunteering and interning in Germany as part of an exchange through the U.S. Department of State. While the leave was less than ideal, being able to learn about the refugee crisis and German economic policy through hands-on work and research is one of the most advantageous opportunities for the application of the academic material I studied for the first two years of my undergraduate career. Throughout this fellowship, we are provided with two months of German language immersion, four months of time to volunteer and take university classes in our subject in German, and six months to volunteer with German companies. Through the second portion of the program, I have been volunteering at emergency and permanent refugee shelters in Berlin. The first-hand contact with one of the world’s most disadvantaged populations has been as valuable for providing insight into the crisis as it has been for developing human relations with people with whom I would have otherwise never had contact. For the third portion of this program, I will be assisting with economic research for one of the central think tanks behind the policies of the German government. Upon my return to college next fall, I hope this experience provides better context and insight into academia.
Following my undergraduate career, I hope to pursue a master's degree in international political economy in preparation for the foreign service officer test. Through hard work and support from my professors and others, I believe I will be able to reach this goal. It is exclusively through the generosity and goodwill of others that I have been able to get so far in my academic career and for that I will be eternally grateful. This scholarship would be instrumental in providing me with the resources I need to finance my formal education, and would help ameliorate the burden of loan debt I, like many college students today, face. I feel both thrilled and accomplished to have this opportunity to help work towards my academic, career, and personal development goals.