Have you ever traveled outside of your town, county, or even state?
Sam Mejia will travel 6,200 miles from his house this summer to study abroad in Tokyo, Japan.
Through Youth for Understanding, affiliated with Family, Career and Community Leaders of America, Mejia, along with 13 other nationwide students, was selected for this opportunity based on his application.
“I’m pretty excited. I put a lot of work into the scholarship,” Mejia said.
Mejia was looking through FCCLA newsletters and found a link to the YFU page for the scholarship, which led to a Google form prompting Mejia to answer three essay questions.
“I had an interview with somebody from YFU,” Mejia said. “I filled out an FCCLA supplemental form as well.”
Mejia said he also had to take a blood test for tuberculosis.
“I had a choice between Kyoto and Tokyo,” Mejia said. “They asked what type of family you prefer to live with.”
Meija said he could choose the size of the family he joined, whether the parents were younger or older, and if they had children or not.
“I get to go over to Japan with the other people who got the scholarship,” Meija said, “All of us will then get an orientation on common manners and normal customs that they do.”
Mejia said the only requirements for the program are going to school for three weeks and touring the soy sauce factory.
“I get to experience different cultures,” Mejia said. “Everything’s paid for through FCCLA, the flight and trip.”
Mejia said he’s taking steps to learn Japanese through tutorials that the program is emailing, since it’s respectful to learn the language even if your host knows English.
“I can’t wait to go,” Mejia said. “I feel like it’s all finally paying off.”
