Details About The CBYX Program

"So what exactly will you be doing over there?" This would be the second most asked question after I tell people I will be going to Germany for a year. The first question, of course, being, "Do you speak German?" The 4 months between when you are accepted into the program and when you leave consists of reading selected articles from Cultural Vistas, brushing up on your German language, uprooting your life (which is actually very liberating), and any number of other things. The program starts with an orientation seminar that starts in Washington DC and concludes in Frankfurt, Germany. This seminar lasts only a couple of days and prepares the participants for everything from culture shock to perception about Americans and so on. The 75 participants are then taken to one of four language schools where they will take 2 months of intensive language courses to prepare them for the German language and culture. This is why German language proficiency is not required to be accepted into the program. This is also where the participant will live for the first 2 months with a host family. I was selected to live the first 2 months of my year in Germany in a city called Radolfzell (also called Radolfzell am Bodensee) to attend the Carl Duisberg Centrum Sprachschule. It is a little idyllic German city situated in southwest Germany right on the Swiss border. It is nestled on the largest lake in Germany called the Bodensee but for some strange reason it is called Lake Constance in English. I found it just a little ironic that I live a stone's throw away from Lake Michigan and now I will be living on the largest lake in Germany.

Radolfzell am Bodensee

I have no doubt that I will have a blast in Radolfzell. After the 2 months of intensive language study, participants move to their permanent host stays for the remainder of the year (10 months) where they will experience a semester at a German university and then complete a 5 month internship in their career field. The semester of school starts in October and concludes in January. The internship starts in February and concludes in July. At this point in time, CBYX is unable to notify participants of the exact city they will be living in during the last 10 months of the program. As of right now, CBYX can only tell us what Bundesland we will be living in. I found out that I will be living in Sachsen-Anhalt.

Their is also a mid-year seminar in January when all the participants and program advisors can meet up and share experiences. The last two weeks of the year are kept clear so as to allow participants time to travel and explore Europe before they depart in mid July for the end of year seminar in New York city. And then I return to home sweet home!