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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First Experience in US

Posted on: 15 September 2021 BY: ASarmento

My first impression of the US and higher education are:

I love the environment here, it is so fresh, green, and cold.

America’s food here are so different than in my country.

American people are so nice specially the elders, they are so welcoming me here.

The first time I have been here and seen US education, I was so impressed by the education system and the work ethic, on time, the staff, and the professors are so kind, they really want to help you, guide you to the direction that you want to go and achieve.





I took 7 courses this semester, some of my friends and my teachers were shocked because they said that there will be an overload assignments and quizzes, but many of my friends and teacher encourage me, they said that I am young, fresh, and ready to take challenges, so to that, I will say yes, I am fresh young and ready to take any challenge. My classes started on the 30th of August, so my first day in class was a little bit challenging because some of the teachers are from different countries so it is a little bit tricky to understand their accent, but I think that if I be able to let myself understand them, I will adapt it, which I did. It has been 3 weeks now and I am getting used to it and to the online system. Many of my classes are fun and I am really enjoying them but some of my classes, I still find it hard to adapt, like my science class, some of the scientific words that I need to address it.





I have not taken any clubs or extracurricular activities yet, but I am planning to join the Science club, an international student organization, Hope for the homeless club and there is more but I want to focus first on my studies. For the past week, I have been in some activities with the other international students, we went hiking at Dingmans Ferry, which we did lots of activities and there is a fashion show for international students to show their traditional clothing which about to happen this week on Saturday.

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