Hello there! I'm Sofia, a GS alumni, and I would love to share with the community here about my truthful review of this program. I attended it in July of this year and it was honestly one of the best educational experiences I've ever had.
The program this year had a really nice structure (American University in DC is amazing), the dorms and dorm life in general were really nice (we had a whole floor for ourselves with four different bathrooms), and the cafeteria had a LOT of different kinds of food (I was honestly surprised on my first day of eating there because I felt as if I was at a high quality restaurant as the ones we find here in Brazil). Yes, some days we had to go through long lines to get our food because of the many different people and programs we see at the university, but that's what makes the experience there even more interesting! During my program session, there was a large group of Australian boy scouts at the university and it was extremely fun talking to them and sharing our worldwide experiences, besides of it being a relaxation part of our long days of intense workshops and speaker sessions.
About the schedules, I thought they were very well thought and structured. The speakers we had the opportunity to talk to were seriously AMAZING! I am a high school Brazilian student and never thought I would have an opportunity to speak and discuss worldwide issues with such talented people. One of my favorite ones was Ambassador Mulamula who shared amazing world views and life experiences with us. Every time we met a new speaker we were able to get new college and work tips, besides internship opportunities. The workshops with Karen and Vanessa were also brilliant. It was honestly the part of the program which made me more enthusiastic to experience. The kind of discussions we had were very deep, philosophical, and heart touching. Besides, the wide cultural range of the students in my session and their high reflection skills about international affairs allowed us to have amazing discussions on the subject. I honestly felt like I was reading Nietzsche every time we, the students and the staff, started talking about the world hahaha.
Another aspect of this program is the attention of the staff towards their applicants and scholars' different life contexts. As I've said before, I'm Brazilian and I come from a very low income family. The way the staff helped me to attend the program made me cry for at least one week at night due to how touched I was. My family would never be able to pay for such a high quality education, but the AMP Global Scholar program gave me this amazing opportunity. In fact, that is one of the reasons we wouldn't go out to eat at fancy and high quality DC restaurants for dinner that often. The staff knew not every student in the session had enough money to pay for their meals out, so instead they decided to take us to restaurants only when they would pay for all of our food which made me extremely thankful. By the way, if you attend the program next year choose to go to the Ethiopian restaurant on the last day! It's amaaaazing.
Yes, the program can be tiring due to the intense work, study, and discussion sessions we have, but that's one of the reasons why it is so productive. In fact, every time we felt overwhelmed with work we would freely talk to the staff and they would give us a nice break (we would go out to grab some coffee, for example). It is the ideal program for you if you're passionate about international affairs, global issues, advocacy, developing your network, creating new projects, and self-reflection.
On the more personal level, the experience helped me in a huge way. I've struggled with major depression and agoraphobia for years, and the way the staff helped me on building my self-confidence and self-love is something I will be forever grateful for. If I had a panic attack one day, I felt comfortable to talk to them and explain why I wasn't able to attend the classes that day. They will fully understand your situation if you explain it honestly, which makes the learning experience very inclusive for non-neurotypicals as well. The program also helped me on developing my emotional intelligence and my knowledge about human relations which are important skills when learning about international affairs.
In summary, I definitely recommend the program for global passionate youth. it is still a worthy experience even if you don't intend on studying International Relations at college (I, for example, plan of studying neuroscience, and I'm sure this summer program experience will still help me in college). All the knowledge I gathered with AMP GS is being used here in my Brazilian community. If you attend the program, make sure to make change in your community as well! Good luck on the applications!
