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College Essay Tips

February 24, 2020

It’s that time to get serious about your future, specifically your college application and essay!

This month’s guest writer is Mike Shank, Guidance Counselor at Shalom Christian Academy in Pennsylvania. Mike has been at SCA for 28 years, hosted 13 students and young adults. His sons, Ian and Sawyer are both students at Shalom Christian Academy.

College application essays can be intimidating but if you think of them as an opportunity for the college to get to know the real you, then it can remove some of the fear. Here are some helpful hints to make college essay writing less stressful.

The most basic task you have is to answer the question you are given.
Be sure your answer is a response to the question or essay prompt rather than a list of your accomplishments. There are other places on the application to list your accomplishments.
There is nothing wrong with “recycling” or reusing parts of other essays you have written if they are relevant to the question.
Please make sure if you are writing an essay for one college, such as Shippensburg University, do not write about what a great fit Bloomsburg University would be for you!
Sometimes colleges ask odd, hard-to-understand questions that are so open-ended it is difficult to know where to start in answering the question.
- The purpose of these questions is to get to know you. If a college asks a question that you think is “weird”, maybe that college is not a good fit for you. Whether a question is strange or not, answering in an authentic, “true” manner is of primary importance.
- Your task is not figuring out what the admissions counselor wants to hear. Your task is to communicate who you are in words.
- Admissions counselors read many essays and they are skilled at detecting a lack of authenticity in essays. They can tell when essays are the result of heavy coaching or are written by a parent or other adult.
As you have opportunity and as it fits with the essay prompt, demonstrate interest in the college by showing how it is a good fit for you. Your response must come from a place of integrity and authenticity; it will, if your reasons for attending a particular college is more about its values, strengths and offerings than it is about prestige and name recognition.
Stay within the suggested word limit. Going over the word limit will not impress admissions counselors. It may hurt your cause if your essay is too long. It is more impressive to be concise while still completely answering the question.
My final piece of advice—be sure to have someone proofread your essay. Another set of eyes can see things that we may not see.

So face those essays fearlessly and let YOU shine through!

From Tiffanee:
Invitation to WeChat or email Tiffanee:
Where’s your dream college? Why?
Seniors, where are you headed for college?
Stay tuned: Next Month…Enter the AHLI Best Homestay Photo Contest! Win a Gift Card!!

Sawyer, Cherina, Mike and Ian Shank on a family trip to Ecuador

Happy Chinese New Year

January 24, 2020

Happy 2020! Happy Chinese New Year! This month we have a guest writer sharing about an American tradition. Brian Kelley is an AHLI Student Director for schools in Maryland and one in PA.

We just turned the calendar on a new year. Many people seek to gain a new focus when flipping the calendar from December to January. We call these focuses, “resolutions.” Resolutions are made for a variety of reasons. There are students who want good grades, there are athletes who desire to perform better, people join gyms with the hopes of losing weight and/or getting in shape and finally there are some; particularly Christians who want to pray and read their Bibles more.

Unfortunately, many fail in their resolutions. We know that we have the best intentions, yet we only make a couple of weeks into the new year, this can be discouraging. But each day, we can strive to continue with our resolution and make small improvements to become better individuals.

The God of the Bible had a resolution, to be reconciled (regain a relationship) with man (II Corinthians 5:18-21). His way to do this did not make sense; He gave up his only Son to be the sacrifice for our sin (all the wrong we do). Even when his Son came to earth to live as a man and even when people rejected his Son, He never broke his resolution. He did not save his Son!

I know this sounds crazy, but it is true. His Son willingly died on the cross so his Father’s resolution would take place. Why? This was not a resolution for only a moment or a new year. This was a resolution for eternity. God realized a bigger picture when it came to mankind. He made a way for each person, including you to have a personal relationship with the living God and to live eternally with Him! Knowing God brings peace, comfort, and strength through the difficult situations of life.

Did you make a resolution? Here are some suggestions to make small improvements each day:

Improve your academic performance
Build a new friendship
Help someone in your class
Prepare for challenging high school courses
Start researching colleges
Remember to enjoy high school
Learn more about God

From Tiffanee:
In America, we often share our resolution with someone to help us keep accomplishing our goal when we feel like giving up. Who can you share your New Year’s resolution with this month? I’d love to hear about your resolutions on Wechat! You can connect with me on WeChat or WhatsApp (TiffaneeWright).
P.S. This month, I am meeting agents in Japan, I brought my two daughters, Kia and Kaiya with me.

Visiting Japan with my daughters, Kia and Kaiya

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

December 18, 2019

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! For most of you, it is the last week of school before Winter Break. Depending where you live, you may be experiencing the beginnings of a very cold, snowy winter, or for others, winter may be feeling quite warm, and sunny!

The holidays in the United States are exciting, as Christians, we celebrate the birth of Jesus on December 25th, but since the U.S.A. respects other cultures and customs, many of our public schools and offices celebrate different holidays, such as: Kwanzaa, Winter Solstice, Las Posadas, Diwali and Hanukkah. Whether you return home for the winter break or remain in the U.S.A. with your host family, we hope you enjoy this festive season.

Having lived abroad during the holidays, I know being in a different culture brings mixed emotions. Sometimes, I was excited to try new things and celebrate with new friends. But other times, I felt lonely and disappointed that I was far from home. But this time of year gives you many opportunities to experience American culture that not only is different, but also can be pretty enjoyable too!

For those of you who will be experiencing an American Christmas, I would like to share 10 FUN ways to get in the Christmas spirit and share good cheer with others.

10) Go Ice Skating (Indoors or Outdoors): Even if you live in a warm climate, you can still find a rink to try this slippery, winter activity!

9) Look at Christmas lights: All around America people decorate their homes for this season only…sometimes the lights are even coordinated to music!

8) Listen to Christmas music: From pop to country to jazz, many musicians create their own versions of famous Christmas songs. Try learning the lyrics to a few famous Christmas carols.

7) Watch a Christmas movie: Most Americans have a favorite Christmas movie- ask your host family what their favorite movie is…. Elf? Miracle on 34th Street? It’s a Wonderful Life? National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation?

6) Make a Gingerbread House: These cute houses made out of cookies are decorated with white icing and candy.

5) Participate in an Annual Toy Drive: Christmas is about sharing and giving…buying a toy and donating it to a child in need helps spread Christmas joy.

4) Mail a Christmas card: Send a Christmas card to a friend or family member.

3) Make homemade cookies and hot chocolate: Look for recipes online and try your hand at an American Christmas tradition.

2) Attend a Christmas Eve service at church: The night before Christmas, many families go to church to sing songs announcing the birth of Jesus to celebrate the greatest gift God has given.

1) Give a small gift to your host family on Christmas day: buy small gifts and wrap them for each member of your host family and place the gifts under the Christmas tree to share Christmas joy.

If you are having feelings of sadness or loneliness, we encourage you to talk with your Coordinator or host parent. They are there to support you and pray with you. During the Christmas season, we wish you joy and peace, and hope that you will be able to try some new Christmas traditions this year.

Don’t forget to connect with me on WeChat and tell me how you are spending your Christmas holiday. We at AHLI are happy to stay in touch with you and hear how you are doing.

Tiffanee
AHLI Executive Director

P.S. Here I am meeting this month with a group of AHLI students and enjoying dinner in Lancaster, PA.

Left to right: Tim, Tiffanee, Carolyn, Qin, Alex, Jerry, Haitao, Lawrence and Johnny.

Happy Thanksgiving!

November 26, 2019

Happy Thanksgiving! Whether this is your first Thanksgiving in America, or your second or third, we at AHLI are happy to have you as part of our homestay program. We hope by now that you are beginning to settle into your new school year. Fall is always a time of new transitions, but it also reminds us to have an attitude of gratitude for the year that is almost over.

As the new Executive Director of American Home Life International, I want you to know that we value you and care about you. Your Director, Coordinator, and School staff want you to have a very successful school year. We want you to have a positive homestay experience as well.

With the Thanksgiving holiday upon us, we hope you are excited to try new American traditions and food! While families across America may celebrate differently, the fourth Thursday of November each year is when we traditionally reflect on the first feast of ‘giving thanks’ in 1621 between the Pilgrims (newcomers to America) and the Wampanoag Indians for a successful harvest. Almost 400 years later, you may find your host family enjoying roasted Turkey, pumpkin pie, visiting family, and watching American football. Of course having no school for a few days, is a nice bonus of Thanksgiving too!

From our family at American Home Life International, we wish you a Happy Thanksgiving! We invite you to think of what you can be thankful for this year in 2019! If this is a challenging or difficult time for you, we encourage you to talk with your Coordinator or host parent. They are there to support you and pray with you. If you are in a really happy place this season, then we rejoice with you. But in everything, we give thanks to have you here in the US with us.

Tiffanee
AHLI Executive Director

P.S. My Thanksgiving plans include travelling to Atlanta, Georgia with my family to visit my husband’s family where we will not eat American food, but Liberian food, the traditional food of my husband’s country!

This is me!

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