<p>Junior daughter just got the word that she's semi-finalist for NSLI-Y next summer. She applied to study Arabic as her #1 choice and Russian as #2. Now she's waiting to be notified about her interview. If anyone out there has done the program, gone through the interview process, or has anything to add that might help her as she navigates through the next stages of the selection process (and hopefully, next summer, the experience!), that would be great. As a mom, I'm also wondering, with all the chaos in the Middle East, where are they sending kids to live with a family and study Arabic?</p>
<p>I am a NSLI-Y scholar who went to China last summer, and I have a couple of friends who did Arabic last summer. Our school is fairly far from a large metro area-- one of us was asked to go for an interview (about ninety minutes away), and the rest of us had phone interviews. Mine went fairly well- the interviewer was pretty straight-forward about the questions she had to ask me-- there weren’t any trick questions or trying to tease out info that was not there. We talked a little about me, my experiences, my schooling, and then the kind of host family I would fit into (so what was my family like? Quiet, active? What kind of activiites did we do together, etc?) Questions about me (am I loud/quiet/fun-loving/studious/etc…, literally a check-list of adjectives). The interviewer is another volunteer, and has absolutely no hand in the selection process whatsoever-- they just send in a report.</p>
<p>I did love my time in China, and my friends loved their time in Oman. The one thing I will say is that, it’s a bunch of high-school kids together with minimal adult supervision-- kids are encouraged to explore the city and practice the language on their own, so take from that what you will. My group was fairly well-behaved, but I have heard stories of other cities/past participants where things did get out of control because hey, high-school kids. I am personally an introvert, and so I struggled with being around people all the time, but that’s happened with every summer thing I’ve ever done, but just a note.</p>
<p>As far as security goes, the NSLI-Y scholarship pays for a whole bunch of different implementing organizations to actually organize the experience, and these organizations have a lot of experience in the areas they’re sending scholars. Additionally, they coordinate with the State Department. I know that the Arabic program last summer was originally told they were going to be in Jordan, before the Arab Spring rebellions, and they ended up moving it to Oman because of security concerns, but my friends said they felt perfectly safe.</p>
<p>The NSLI-Y scholarship does cover pretty much everything, and how much money your child spends will depend on them. I know some people who went shopping almost every other day and dropped a lot of cash-- some other students, including myself, lived like we did in the US and didn’t really shop that much. When our flight back home was delayed (we got into Chicago at about 10/11 PM), the American Councils staff (organization who oversaw my particular program) was really good about rebooking kids and reaccomadating them. They tried everything they could to get us in if there were connecting flights that late (I lived in Dallas, so I got lucky) and made sure that kids were otherwise in hotels, called all of our parents and kept in pretty constant contact with them, etc. Logistically, all of these organizations are top-notch.</p>
<p>NSLI-Y is also pretty language intensive. It’s not a tour program-- whatever country/program you’re doing, you will be going to school at something like 8 AM in the morning and be there until 2 PM. There will be homework. It’s as much about exploring and having fun as it is about the academics.</p>
<p>All in all, I really enjoyed NSLI-Y, and the scholarship was an amazing opportunity-- one of the ones that let me really experience being on my own in a large urban city (I live in the suburb and in the south, where cars are everything), I had to navigate public transportation on my own, problem-solve, and really impressed upon me the importance of learning Mandarin… and I know a lot of my friends feel the same way.</p>
<p>Edited to mention: Oh wow, that’s a lot longer than I thought it would be. Feel free to PM me/ask me more questions! (:</p>
<p>@purpleacorn HAPPY NEW YEAR! I am also a semi-finalist for the NSLI-Y program China. I have interview pretty soon, which I am excited for. I just wanted to ask you what city did you stay in China? Do you know how they select cities? What was the flight like? How much do you suggest to bring? Thanks so much for being a help!</p>
<p>@purpleacorn Also did you keep your passport and flight ticket with you at all times? or was it secure at your host families home?</p>
<p>chai, my son hasn’t done the NSLI-Y program, but he has spent a summer and the past fall in Jordan. He’s going back to Jordan this spring as well. Of course we have concerns, but so far Jordan has been relatively safe. They stay away from Friday demonstrations. We visited Jordan a couple of weeks ago and found the country extremely friendly and far safer feeling than many parts of New York City. If she is going to spend time in the Arabic speaking world and wants to have a positive experience she needs to be aware of local mores and be prepared to follow them. My son feels that too many of the women in the programs he has been in have sabatoged their experience by being unwilling to dress conservatively enough. (Lest you think it’s easier for boys, he never wears short sleeves or short pants when he’s there except when hiking.) If she has a choice in Arabic programs, the local dialect in Morocco is probably the least useful. If she ends up in China I recommend reading Dreaming in Chinese, a really enjoyable easy read about what you can learn about a culture through the way the language is structured. My Arabic speaking son read it on my recommendation and really enjoyed it, though said it would be even better if it had been about Arabic. :)</p>
<p>Hello -</p>
<p>I am an alum of Arabic summer 2012, and I went to Oman. First of all, almost everything purpleacorn said was true, except for the part about Jordan. When NSLI-Y started they had Arabic programs in Jordan, Egypt, and Morocco (to the best of my knowledge). In the middle of the 2010-2011 school year they had to remove the year students because of the protests. When we applied a year ago, they still had Jordan, Egypt, and Morocco listed as the program locations, maybe because they were exploring the idea of returning to Egypt. Anyway, they did not, and instead added Oman to replace Egypt. They still had programs in Morocco AND Jordan as well!</p>
<p>As for safety, there should be absolutely NO worries about that. This is a state department program, they know what is going on in the countries and make sure that you are safe. Oman for its part is extremely safe, Muscat is safer than most American cities, and even on top of that they spend about 90% of the orientation talking about safety and watch you like a hawk all the time. If you give in to the idea that everywhere in the middle east is unsafe, you are perpetuating the very stereotypes that the program hopes to break.</p>
<p>Your daughter should ABSOLUTELY join this group: <a href=“http://www.facebook.com/groups/nsliyapplicants/[/url]”>http://www.facebook.com/groups/nsliyapplicants/</a> it does say 2012-2013 because they can’t change the group once it’s over a certain number of members, but it’s for EVERYONE related to NSLI-Y: alumni, applicants, rejectees, semifinalists etc - who are students. You can’t join because it’s meant to be a place for students to talk with their peers and be open and having parents could stifle the openness of the group. The many alumni in the group will answer any and every question your daughter could have and support her throughout the whole process! Other than that we have long conversations about our experiences with exchange, other things many of us are going through (college apps!!), or foreign music and arts. If your daughter has a facebook, please encourage her to join!</p>
<p>Good luck to your daughter with the rest of the application process!</p>
<p>@carissima-Thanks for the clarification-- I must have remembered incorrectly. (:</p>
<p>@hosefb- A number of implementing organizations use the NSLI-Y scholarship in China-- you could be in Shanghai, Beijing, Taiwan, Zhengzhou (where I was), Suzhou, Changqing-- the organizations are assigned students semi-randomly (but I know the UDel program is geared towards total beginners and a lot of the advanced students for funneled towards American Councils). All participants were required to carry around a copy of our passport at all times, as well as an information card with names and numbers. My passport was my responsibility, but it was kept with my luggage in my host family’s house everyday.</p>