“Being a Fellow is awesome.”
“I had the best two months and half of my life.”
“I learned so much about myself.”
“I learned so much about professional life.”
That is what people told me about a year ago. These were people who had already been abroad. They told me about how wonderful it was, and how the exchange experiences have changed them forever. I was truly inspired by their energy, and the passion they had, and I was so curious about how a few months as Fellow would teach me my “life lesson”.
First of all I had to wait until end-July.15 to be told that they had finally found a Host Organization for me, And it Atlas Corps Organization and it is the same organization that facilitates overseas fellowships for the best of the world’s rising leaders to promotes innovation, cooperation, and solutions to address the world’s 21st century challenges. Oh yeah , i was so excited.
My family back in Sudan was very happy for me that my dream was finally coming true, because they knew how much I wanted this, and how much effort I had put into all the applications. The road until then was like a rollercoaster for me. My dream to go to America began about 20 years ago. But it was childhood dreams “ become an international soccer player” , by the way I was good former soccer player. I tried scholarships, lottery visa many times but it did not work out. I finally told myself that it was not meant to be, and that there were other opportunities to go abroad, and I felt good about it. Last year in Feb 16th 2015 at 5:06 Am I received email from my close friend Mona Hassan , telling me about an opportunity for overseas fellowships for the nonprofit organization leaders. I was not very excited, because I know the competition will be very high with thousands of candidates , but I told myself I should try , I have nothing to lose if it did not work out.
Now here I am. With the perfect organization , amazing team and wonderful supervisor ”Andrea Hernandez ”, I live in a cute town Washington, DC, and I love walking around downtown. I had found a lot of friends, and I’m coming to believe that in a coming few months I will be the Fellow telling everybody how my exchange visit to U.S. had changed my life. Honestly, I already feel that way.