August 24, 2019 will be a big day for sophomore Naomi Bowers.

“I leave for Germany on August 24, and I don’t come back until June 20,” Bowers said.

Bowers received the Congress-Bundestag Scholarship and will spend the entire 2019-2020 school year in Germany. Bowers said she had to do a lot of preparation to get into this program. She was one of only 75 people in the country to earn the honor.

“When I found out I had made it I was in math and I started screaming and ran out the door to call my parents. My class thought I was crazy but I couldn’t have cared less,” Bowers said.

Bowers said the application process for the scholarship was extensive.

“I started applying in November and I had to write 6 essays that were all basically bragging about myself. I finished applying in December but didn’t find out until February that I had made it,” Bowers said.

Bowers said she is not concerned about having to spend so much time away from family and friends.

“I’ve always kind of wanted to do this because a lot of my family members have done something like it and they all said it was so much fun, and that has made me even more excited,” Bowers said.

Bowers’ dad had got a degree in German so when asked if she was going to be nervous about speaking the language, because she is only in German 2, she was very confident.

“My dad got a degree in German literacy at UCLA so I speak it with him and I also will go to a month-long language immersion camp to help me even more,” Bowers said.

As of now Bowers said she does not know where she is going to stay or who she will live with.

“I’m not sure who I’m staying with yet. I won’t know until about 2 weeks before I leave. I also don’t know what part of Germany I will be in. I’m hoping I’ll be up north because the language is more pure and easier to understand,” Bowers said.