After an early morning flight to Denver and then Washington DC, I was anxious to meet the other 64 students traveling abroad thanks to YES Abroad! I arrived at IAD and rushed to the meeting point for YES students. There I met several alumni and students traveling to countries like Jordan, Indonesia, Macedonia and a few more. It was amazing to hear how far some of them had traveled to get there, and what inspired each of them to apply. Despite traffic causing our 30 min bus ride to last 2-1/2 hours, we put our hunger aside to make friends and learn more about the YES program. We finally arrived at the National 4-H Conference Center at 7pm, scarfed down some food, put our luggage away and walked into a room full of the rest of the YES Abroad students.
Meeting the rest of my cohort in person was amazing! We had a ton of fun getting to know each other throughout the NPDO and we enjoyed learning about our group leader's past experiences in Ghana. We made the best of our time in between sessions by asking her all of our questions and listening to her advice. Thanks Becky!
One of my highlights from the trip include visiting the U.S. Dept. of State and having the opportunity to hear from the principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, Ambassador Galt, and have her answer some of our questions. It was a great opportunity to learn more about the impact of studying abroad and how it can completely change your career path and outlook on life. After listening to Ambassador Galt, a few other women from the U.S. Dept. of State who have experience in Western Africa, were kind enough to speak to our smaller group of students traveling to Morocco and Ghana and gave us plenty of new information for our exchange year and beyond.
I absolutely loved spending time with the other Ghana-bound students at the Lincoln Memorial after our State Department visit! We took tons of pictures and had fun avoiding the rain and wind. I hope these next two months pass quickly! I can't wait to see them again.
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