Manvi Chaudhary (YES 14-15, India, hosted with AFS in Minneapolis, MN) was recently featured in Huffpost India!

"The 18-year-old is the daughter of a farmer and homemaker in western Uttar Pradesh, and the eldest of four children. She is also the first in a village of over 2,000 people to go abroad to study. Manvi has been offered a full scholarship from Wellesley College in Massachusetts to study in their undergraduate program.

"I am excited about everything," Manvi says in her soft voice, when asked what is she looking forward to the most. Dressed in a green t-shirt that says "NYC", Manvi is at her house in the outskirts of Dhanauri Mafi village, where she lives with her parents and three siblings. As she sits on a charpoy surrounded by her extended family and two bullocks who live in a shed inside the courtyard of the house, there is an excited buzz in the air. Her face constantly splits into a wide grin as she speaks--made all the more endearing thanks to her attempt to keep a straight face. "Everything is exciting."

"...Traveling to the USA opened up the world for her, she recalls. "Everyone was really nice," she says. It's where she got her American accent--she was speaking in English all the time--and that year, while traveling to various college campuses, she decided she wanted to study abroad."

To learn more about Manvi's family, her achievement and her new adventure, read the full article

Photo credit: Manvi and her family in Uttar Pradesh, Huffpost India, Andrew Clarance