I still have no email from YES about the country webinar… should we email them this week?
Yeah probably. February is half over so it’s definitely not ‘early February’ anymore. Maybe wait and see if they send it tomorrow since that’s the beginning of their work week, but if we don’t get it by like 5 pm E.T. tomorrow I think it’s okay to ask.
In any case, I’m glad I’m not the only one who hasn’t gotten the email lol!
Yeah, if they don’t send it tomorrow, we should ask them on Tuesday. It’s not just us either, one of my friends who is also a YES semifinalist has not gotten the email either. He texted me an hour ago asking if I had received it, because he hasn’t. I doubt anyone has gotten the email.
There is unfortunately a very strong possibility that all of these State Dept exchange programs will be cancelled due to the Executive Orders relating to spending freezes. Watch what happens with the federal budget in March. Call your Congressional representative and Senator, and have your parents call, advocating specifically for funding of these programs. So sorry to everyone on this thread. I hope you’re able to pivot and find another way to go if it doesn’t work out this year.
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Yeah, I was thinking that but didn’t want people to freak out. I’m hoping that they will leave 2025-2026 alone because it has already been budgeted this year. Considering writing a letter to help with it. I would not be surprised if programs got completely cut or had less scholarships for 2026-2027. Then again, I’m not going to worry over it unless I get accepted.
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I too have been keeping this in the back of my mind but hoping against hope that it’ll turn out alright for the programs since a) like DyPascals said it’s already been budgeted for, plus it’s a tiny fraction of the US’s overall budget and b) they survived just fine during 2016-2020 (until COVID ofc). Then again who knows. To everybody else on this thread, don’t lose hope. Good luck. Do what you can for now (call/write to your representatives in Congress), and no matter what happens, know we’ll be okay. It’d be extremely disappointing but that’s life sometimes. Sending good vibes to all <3
Actually if anyone needs a little piece of hope rn, I’ve been going on other forums and found that FLEX and YES (not the Abroad ones, the original ones that bring teens from other countries to the US) released acceptances recently! Since FLEX and YES as well as FLEX/YES Abroad, NSLI-Y, and CBYX are funded by the US, there’s still hope.
(Side note: If anyone’s confused about FLEX/YES versus FLEX/YES Abroad, basically FLEX/YES bring foreign students to the US and FLEX/YES Abroad send US students back to some of those countries. What I was saying above is basically, FLEX/YES appear to be going forward with study abroad preparations, which bodes well for those of us on this forum. Or at least, it doesn’t bode badly for us).
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Wow! Can you please PM me the links to these other forums? Thank you!
Just did!
I JUST got the email for the country fair! YAYYYY!!!
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Seems like theres a lot of us that applied to all 4 programs!! Wishing yall the best of luck
Yeah, though it’s kinda surprising how many people in my interview didn’t know about YES or FLEX.
Yeah I was just laughing to myself about how this NSLI-Y forum turned into a NSLI-Y/YES/FLEX/CBYX forum lol. Wishing you luck too! Only a few weeks left until notifs start coming out!!!
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Yeah… there aren’t any forums for YES or FLEX 2025-2026, and the one for CBYX didn’t take off. I hope that all of our discussions will help future applicants!
Just dropping in to say that a very long-standing summer-internship at another federal agency, which I will not name, pulled the plug on their college internship program for summer 2025. I know bc one of my kids was going down the path.
Hopefully this won’t include the programs being discussed here.
So sorry for your kid, that’s really disappointing. Hopefully they can find other opportunities.
Do you know if they canceled it for a particular reason? If it was because of the budget cuts, then we might be in trouble. If not, then we might be okay.
Yeah I hope other applicants will benefit from our convos. That’s the main reason I started posting on this site actually, because I relied on past forums so much during applications and hoped I could help future applicants/lurkers.
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Let’s just say it’s an agency not known for sharing information 
Basically a black hole so we really don’t know.
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yeah, I’ve been wondering about that aspect but have been scared to think about it too much. I mentioned it at the end of my interview when I had the chance to ask questions. My interviewer said that as of then, they had no idea how the EO’s would affect the programs and that everyone at AFS was wishing for the best. I hope nothing is affected for 2025-2026 or any future years. these programs are so valuable and it would be a huge loss if they were to disappear.
oh jeez. that’s disenheatening for sure. I hope your kid isn’t too disapointed! i know i will be if this internship falls through. I wish them the best of luck for finding other opportunities in the future :')