USTL provides full scholarships to outstanding students from Timor-Leste for two to four years of study at high-quality undergraduate degree institutions in the United States. Scholarship awards include full tuition toward either a bachelor’s degree or associate degree, travel, living stipends, medical insurance in the U.S., and visa costs. USTL is a program of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA), U.S. Department of State.

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Second year experience

Posted on: 15 October 2016 BY: MLiu

My 2016 fall semester is different from last year in several aspects. Unlike last year, this year I am living with undergraduate students in international housing on Campus. As the oldest student living with undergraduate students it is not always an easy task. I have to know how to communicate and compromise with students that are years younger than myself. Having been appointed as a social activities ambassador for international students at Saint Michael's college enables me more access to socialize with them. Luckily it is not difficult task for me as I have 10 brothers and sisters (five brothers and five sisters) where I am the eldest one, therefore I treat them as they are my younger siblings. I am happy that some of the students feel comfortable to share their difficulties with me. As a social activities ambassador with help from my very good friend Michele from Congo, we organized several successful events such as a Movie night, a Basketball game and an international food festival. I also shared my experiences with some of the international students who were having trouble academically. I am very happy with my role as ambassador because other than contributing something useful to my community I am also making new friends from around the world. Recently Michele and myself with help from other students organized fund raising for hurricane Matthew victims and raised enough money to donate to the Vermont Haiti Project. As a team leader,I worked closely with the director for multicultural affairs and Ms. Kimball, board director of Vermont Haiti project tomake sure everythingran smoothly. Even though I really enjoy my new role as a social activities ambassador I also have to focus on my priority which is my classes. I learned how to balance my time between study and my role as ambassador. Even though this semester is busy, I have managed my time well so far. This year there are two things I would like to achieve, Ireally would like to improve my English as I feel like it needs improvement, my secondaim would be for all international and native English speakers in Saint Michael's to be able to socialize and communicate with minimal cultural and languagebarriers. Overall this semester has been great so far and I feel honored to have been chosen for the role of culturalambassador, I take this role very seriously and aim to build trusting relationships with both St Mikes staff and all of the international students.

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