Hi everyone! My name is Luiza Caleia, and I'm a 17-year-old from Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais. I'll guide you through my journey to China with the AFS Global STEM Academies!

My background and how my interests align with the AFS mission

I'm currently in my senior year at Colégio Militar de Juiz de Fora, and I’m passionate about Biology, literature, environmental protection, and global cultures, which are the topics that I focus on in my projects. I discovered this program through an opportunities workshop my school organized in my freshman year, applied to it when I was a sophomore, but could only attend in my junior year, due to another program I was approved for that would take place at the same period as AFS.

The Global STEM Academies is a digital and in-person learning experience that gathers youth from 15 countries worldwide, in which students use their sustainability knowledge and STEM skills to develop social impact projects and presentations that offer potential solutions to real-world challenges, emphasizing sustainability, the UN Sustainable Development Goals, climate change, and the energy transition. It begins with a 12-week virtual e-learning curriculum (from home) with workshops co-developed by AFS and the University of Pennsylvania Center for Social Impact Strategy. After completing it, the scholars go on a 4-week immersive travel to one of the academy destinations: USA, India, China, and Egypt were the options in the 2024 edition, but they can change for each year.

The selection process

The first stage of the application required essays about yourself, a description of extracurricular activities, academic history, and a health certificate. From my personal experience, I would say that producing the essays were the most challeging part because I wasn't used to write such focused reflections about my life trajectory, since in the Brazilian high school system we aren't focused prepared to these types of questions in an academic context, so I felt like a blank when producing the essays until I understand what I could come up with. An interesting thing about the process at the time included sending a form to your friends so they could answer things about you, showing who you are from their perspective.

My extracurricular activities

At the time, the main projects I was involved with were about school engagement. I'm part of the Legion of Honor, a student union focused on social impact and volunteering with community leaders by mobilizing the school body to participate in social causes.

Another activity is my school's International Relations Club, in which we promote debates and place ourselves in positions of power, and I think that the culturalism and open-mindedness I developed by participating in UN simulations were important factors considered in my application, because AFS truly values those principles.

Finally, I was part of the Literary Recreational Society, a project that promotes artistic events in the school context, such as talent shows, modern art week, and song festivals.

Financial Aid

I can say that one of the best factors about the Academies is that it is a well-founded program. The students don't bear any costs during it; the only exceptions are when they need to travel within their own country to obtain a visa (before the in-person experience) and when they want to buy extras/gifts when travelling (during the in-person experience). Food, housing, transportation, and all remaining expenses are covered by AFS.

China Experience: first impressions, new discoveries, and its impact on my future

We stayed there for almost a month, a period where we could visit three Chinese cities: Shanghai, Ningbo, and Beijing; experience living in a university dorm and with host families; have many cultural shocks; and really expand my perspective about the world and its diversity. At first, it was hard; everything was new to me, and the feeling of missing home kept growing in my chest. But as time passed, I could open myself to enjoy all the activities and be excited to live it with the amazing friends I made along the way.

Our classes were focused on STEM, especially on technology and engineering, but they were explored through many topics, such as aerodynamics, ancient Chinese constructions, digital platforms, and online business. We also had many cultural lessons, including cooking, sewing, and paper folding, highlighting the concept of global citizenship by valuing the interconnection of different cultures.

The program schedule led us to three different cities to complete a final project for each of them. In Shagai, our work was to identify a problem and propose a technological and sustainable solution for it, as my team talked about the plastic issue; in Ningbo, reflect on challenges that cities will face in the future, in which we presented water and food supply crisis and its relation with environmental degradation and social inequality; and lastly Beijing (my favorite one), where we produced a video about our experience in it to motivate visitation of other people, like a propaganda.

My favorite part of the whole experience was to explore the culture of the country through visiting temples of Ancient China; its history in the Forbidden City in Beijing, where imperial palace constructions are located, built thousands of years ago; but also get to explore Hutongs, small streets and alleys that preserve many Chinese traditions.

I developed many abilities and soft skills by attending the Academies, as I could learn in practice about multiculturalism and how adaptable I am outside my comfort zone, strengthening my resilience, patience, and courage to face new experiences. At the end of the program, the students receive an advanced certificate in social impact that proves their knowledge and commitment to change the world, important for those who want to work with innovation.

Tips for future Applicants

Since this is a multicultural exchange, I believe the main aspect you need to emphasize in your application is how understanding you are of differences and how you use them to create more respectful spaces in your community and past experiences, whether they were multicultural or not. Another important factor is school engagement. Show them how you take action on a problem and turn it into something positive and meaningful, and then they will be able to understand that you are prepared for the challenges the program offers.

Additionally, the more your essays are personal and highlight unexpected connections, the more the admission officers will be curious about your story. Don’t try to show off your accomplishments and leave them to the side; give it the focus instead.