Hiya! My name is Hannah Harris and recently I have applied to AFS for an opportunity to study abroad in Switzerland starting in August, a dream come true.
And traveling is something that most people dream about. It is a dream that is vivid and intense one day and dim and uncertain the next because, if we're being honest, travel is expensive. But to dream is to hope and hope is exactly why I want to spend this year abroad.
Let me explain. I have always wanted to teach, every kid does at some point, but when others were abandoning that path, I clung to it tighter. It was never a question of "Will I teach?" but more "What will I teach?". And over the past three years, I've drawn an answer from that question's mouth: English. I'll teach English. But not the long-noveled, intro-body-conclussion, analyze-this-til-you-drop English. No: the language. The language that is spreading across the world and giving hope and a future to those who mightn't have had any otherwise.
"But what does this have to do with traveling? Especially to Switzerland."
Well. To teach someone, you must understand them. And to understand someone, you must know their past. And what better way exists to know a people than through their tongue? Then through delving into their culture and making their experiences your own? So if I wish to teach in another country, it is necessary to understand where they come from so I can assist them in their search for where they want to go.
"Okay, awesome. But that still doesn't explain why Switzerland."
Why Switzerland. Beyond the neutral-land's stereotype of peace as a hope based concept, Switzerland consists of three major language groupings: German, French and Italian. And while the likelihood of becoming fluent in all three languages in a years time is slim to none (barring closer to none), there is more than a fair chance of exposure to the trio in varying quantities. And, in my books, when it comes to language: the more the merrier. And not only will I benefit from this three-in-one, but with my career plan, it will hopefully be beneficial to my future students as well.
Unfortunately, teaching has a rather low pay grade, and the majority of teachers, including my mom, will attest to that. And while my future occupation has no effect on the payment of AFS's tuition now, my parents' occupations do.While there is ample money in my home for daily needs and the occasional luxury item, a teacher and a computer programmer's salaries make the plausibility of this adventure all but disappear.
I have applied for other scholarships that lighten the burden of the tuition, and I have extended family willing to bear the weight alongside me, but every cent someone else can give tips the scales ever more in my favor.
And that's where I hope you'll come in. I have joined the Sponsor an AFSer program, an online fundraising tool provided by AFS to allow potential sponsors, like yourself, make easy, secure, and non tax-deductable contributions to my AFS program fee.
If you're willing to help, I'd greatly appreciate it if you would please click the Donate Now button to make a non tax-deductible contribution directly to my AFS program account.
