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Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange (CBYX)
The (CBYX)program offers secondary school students the chance to spend a year in Germany living with host families, attending a German school, and participating in community life. Additional CBYX programs are available for young professionals and vocational high school grads.
Imagine spending an entire year overseas, immersing yourself in a foreign culture and language, making new friends for life, and shaping your perspective on the world. For around 250 American participants of the Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange program (CBYX) who travel to Germany each year, this dream becomes reality.
Initiated by the United States Congress and the German Bundestag in September 1983 to mark 300 years of the first German settlement in America, CBYX, known as Parlamentarisches Patenschafts-Programm (PPP) in Germany, is a unique, fully-funded scholarship program giving young people ages 15-18 a firsthand experience of the importance of international friendship and cooperation, which rests on shared political and cultural values.
During their CBYX year, scholarship holders attend school, live in a host family, travel the country, and meet with political leaders as they learn about the governmental system of the host country. As they develop friendships for life, young Germans and Americans have the opportunity to improve language skills and act as ambassadors of their country.
For American participants, CBYX offers:
- Placement with a carefully selected German host family
- Admission to a German high school
- Orientation programs in Washington D.C. and Germany
- Meetings with American and German government officials
- Cultural excursions to the German Bundestag and select German cities
- Supplementary language lessons upon arrival in your host community
