Friday, April 20, 2012

Summer Plans and UWC Map

I just accepted a job working at a special needs overnight camp. That's right, I've decided to brave the most adventurous border ever created - the Illinois-Iowa state line.

Or not, but still. I'll be working in Iowa for ten weeks this summer (essentially all summer). NSLI-Y isn't coming through for me this summer, but that's totally fine. I'm really excited to see all of these people getting their first summer scholarship. I've decided that I'd rather see new people getting to have the experience, instead of getting accepted a second summer, and seeing new people not get to go at all. On the plus side, I love camps like this, and half of the staff they hired is from outside of the US - so who knows? Maybe it'll turn out to be a rather international summer after all :D

So now, I'm just freaking about UWCs. Still waiting, I know. I should hear either Tuesday or Wednesday. Tuesday is the PSAE/ACT though, so that should be interesting. Hopefully I'll find out Tuesday, because then Wednesday is WorkKeys, so another charming testing day. Two days of trying to sit through standardized tests without being distracted by something like UWC isn't going to be pretty, but I'll try to stay focused all the same.

Can't get this off my mind! How it works is that they accept 52 (hopefully, including me) of the 120 applicants that got interviewed, regardless of campus choice - so campus preference isn't a part of the selection process. Then, they figure out how to split these 52 students up among the campuses - 25 of the US students go to UWC-USA, and the rest are split up among the other schools, with 1-3 US students at each. My first couple choices (from top choice on down) were Waterford (Swaziland), Mahindra (India), Mostar (Bosnia), Red Cross (Norway), and Adriatic (Italy).

They try to place people in the schools they wanted, but understandably it doesn't always work out. I heard from one girl that she was placed in her eighth choice, which was UWC-USA (She was from the US, so one of the 25 they sent there that year). After thinking about it a lot, I decided that I'd probably accept the spot and attend UWC-USA for the two years, because it is indeed a really good school, and really international, and would be a great experience, but there are things about the other campuses that I'm really interested in. No, it's not just a case of "I want to get out of the country" (okay, maybe a little bit. But that's the case for everyone who applies to a school like this!). Rather, there are things about the other schools that UWC-USA just can't offer - local HIV/AIDS programs in Swaziland, working on biodiversity in India, being so close to an amazing city like Hong Kong, the Red Cross aspect of the Norway campus, or the simple fact that I'd love to learn another local language during my time at the UWCs, and at UWC-USA, the local language is, you guessed it, Pig Latin, so that's not really anything new for me :) Anyways.

This is such a nerve-wracking weekend! I can't wait to hear back from them!

[Edit: April 21, 2012 - I just realized that this picture is missing UWC in Maastricht. Anyhoo...]



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