I just got an NSLI-Y Scholarship to China!

I just found out that I got a full ride scholarship to China!  The schedule I got at my NSLI-Y interview said that we were supposed to be notified by April 1st, and since I hadn't heard anything, I set up this blog.  Now, it turns out that I am going with NSLI-Y!  This program is more intensive and will really help me learn Chinese.  So please hold off on donations until I contact AFS and find out all the details.  Thank you very much for your support, and we will contact all contributors when we get it sorted out. 

AFS will match your donations in April!

Great news!  AFS has generously offered to match all contributions made during the month of April up to $500.  So every little bit helps, no matter how small!  As an extra incentive, a donation of $15 or more will qualify you for a copy of my book, BYOC:  South America.  Just let us know where you would like it sent by emailing the address at rumskytravellers.com.  To sponsor my AFS program now, please click the ChipIn button.  Thanks for helping send me to China!

Allow me to introduce myself....

My name is Christopher Malinosky.  The reason I want to spend a year abroad, especially in China, is that I want to explore a part of the world I have never been to before.  I want to try new foods, ones that are not Americanized versions but the real things.  I want to see the sights of new places and do things I have never done before.  I want to have new experiences with new memories that will last forever.  I hope this experience will cause me to gain a new insight on the world.  With this new insight, I would see things differently, in a new light.  I would spread my story to everyone willing to listen hopefully changing their views on the world.  The harshness of war can only be softened and ended with words.  I hope to spread what I learn around to everyone. 

In the future, I plan on becoming an engineer like my father.  I enjoy electronics and seeing how things work.  It would be fun to work with electronics and help people at the same time.  I hope to go to MIT or a good engineering college by getting good grades, competing in the science fair at the state level, and taking the hardest classes possible at my school, the School of Science and Technology. I already have college credit from the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, where I took a summer course in marine biology.  I also want to go to China because I want to be able to learn Chinese.  Chinese is a growing power in industry.  When I become an engineer, I would like to be able to speak to them in their own language without having to worry about getting a translator.  This would allow them to feel more comfortable when explaining their problems.  I already know two other languages and I would like to learn Chinese because it is nothing like the other languages I have learned.  Since Chinese is similar to Korean and Japanese, it would open up whole new languages.  The language of Chinese is like poetry because of all of its tones and phrases.  By learning Chinese I could read books in their own language so I would be able to see the pure poetry.  This year I have taken Chinese lessons from a private tutor, but I need to spend time in China to really improve my skills.

I am an average person and, being in a time of recession, I need to make money to achieve this goal.  I have been selling some of my old possessions as well as working for pay.  To sponsor my AFS program now, please click the ChipIn button. 

Here are some pictures of me as "Dobson" in our school play "Haven't a Clue" and competing in the state science fair with my partner, Scott Russell.