Exchange Programme Essay Sample for School Students (YES and Similar)

When to use this

School exchange programmes let Pakistani students in grades 8 to 11 (or O Level and matric years) spend a year or a summer abroad, living with a host family and attending a local school. The best known is the US-funded Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange and Study (YES) programme. Others include school summer programmes and short exchanges run by embassies and foundations; see our exchange programmes page for current ones.

Application forms for these programmes usually ask a few short essays, and the questions change from year to year. Common themes are:

• Tell us about yourself, your family and your community
• Why do you want to take part, and what do you hope to learn?
• How would you describe Pakistan to people who know little about it?
• Describe a time you were in an unfamiliar situation or worked with people different from you
• What will you do when you return?

Selectors are not looking for the best English or the highest marks. They want students who are curious, open-minded, independent enough to live with a new family, and likely to share what they learn when they come home.

What selectors look for:

• Your own voice: how a teenager really thinks and talks
• Specific details about your life, family and town
• Adaptability: signs you can cope with change and difference
• Interest in other people, not only in seeing America or Europe
• A realistic idea of what you will do back home

The sample

The essay below answers a combined prompt, "Tell us about yourself and why you want to take part in this programme", in about 400 words. The writer, Bilal Ahmed, is a fictional 15-year-old from Sahiwal.

My name is Bilal, and I live in Sahiwal with my parents, my grandmother and two younger sisters. My father runs a mobile repair shop near the main bazaar, and most evenings after school I sit at the counter and help him. That is where I have learned most of what I know about people. Farmers, students, policemen and grandmothers all come in with broken phones, and while my father fixes them, they talk. I have learned to listen, to explain things simply, and to stay patient when someone is angry because their phone has all their family photos on it.

At school, I am in grade 10. My favourite subject is computer science, and last year I taught a group of younger students how to make simple games in Scratch during our school's science week. My English is not perfect, but I practise by watching science videos and by reading the instruction manuals for the phones in my father's shop.

I want to join this programme because I have never lived anywhere except Sahiwal, and I want to know whether I can manage on my own in a completely different place. I am curious about how families in another country spend their evenings, how students there choose what to study, and whether teenagers there worry about the same things we do. I also know that many people abroad only hear about Pakistan in the news. I would like to show my host family the Pakistan I know: my grandmother's stories about Partition, the way our whole street celebrates Eid together, and the best way to make chai.

I know it will not always be easy. I will miss my family, and I might feel embarrassed when I do not understand jokes or rules. When I started helping in my father's shop, I was too shy to speak to customers. Now I can talk to anyone. I think I can learn to be at home in a new place in the same way.

When I return, I want to start a computer club at my school for students whose families cannot afford a computer, using the shop's old laptops that my father has promised to repair. I also want to tell my classmates, especially the ones who think going abroad is impossible for people like us, exactly how I got there.

How to adapt this

• Write about your real life, even if it seems ordinary. A mobile repair shop, a family farm, looking after younger siblings or a long bus ride to school all make good material.
• Show adaptability with an example from your own life: moving house, starting at a new school, a family trip, a sports tour.
• Talk about what you will give, not only what you will get. Selectors want students who will represent Pakistan well and share the experience at home.
• Keep the language simple and correct. A clear 15-year-old's voice is better than difficult words.
• For parents: help your child think of examples and check spelling, but let them write it themselves. Interviewers will ask about the essay, and an essay that sounds like an adult wrote it can count against a student.

Common mistakes

• Writing mainly about wanting to see famous places or go shopping.
• An essay that sounds like a speech ("Pakistan is a peace-loving country with rich culture and heritage…").
• Long lists of trophies and certificates.
• Copying an essay from a previous applicant or a website.
• Paying an agent to apply or write essays. Official exchange programmes such as YES are free to apply to and never charge a fee to be selected; report anyone who asks for money. See how to avoid scholarship scams.