PHS student traveling to China

A Poway High School incoming senior will spend six weeks studying in China after being awarded a prestigious scholarship.

Mendel Baljon, 17 and currently a junior, is one of about 600 students nationwide to be a recipient of the U.S. Department of State’s National Security Language Initiative for Youth (NSLI-Y) scholarship for 2016-17.

Baljon was originally supposed to travel to Turkey to study, but concerns about safety have left him unable to visit the country. Instead, he will study in his second choice, China, in late June.

“I’m really excited to go to China,” said Baljon. “Learning Mandarin is really practical (for the future), I’m sure I’ll find some use for it.”

Baljon said he was looking for something to do this summer and while googling, discovered the NSLI-Y scholarship being offered.

Baljon applied, but didn’t expect to be selected. “I never expected to get very far (in the application process),” he said. “It has three parts, including an essay and an interview, and I never thought I’d get the scholarship.”

He was very excited when he found out he was a NSLI-Y scholarship recipient, but said he was also very nervous because he worried he would get homesick, being away so long. “I got homesick last summer while I was in Germany for several weeks,” he said. “I hope I won’t be homesick in China.”

Baljon may not have time to be homesick. During his six-week stay, Baljon will spend his mornings studying Mandarin and his afternoons out in the city, learning the culture and exploring. He will stay in a university dorm, or with a host family if there’s isn’t a dorm available, he said.

Baljon said his family is excited for him to study in China. “My mom has been to Hong Kong, but my dad hasn’t ever been to Asia, so they’re excited that I can go,” he said.

He said he is looking forward to eating real Chinese food and seeing a country that is growing as quickly as China. “China is changing so much, it will be interesting to see it. You see it in the news, but you don’t really know,” said Baljon.

Learning Mandarin will be new for Baljon, who has studied German at Poway High School and knows some Dutch from his parents, who immigrated to the U.S. from the Netherlands.

He was initially interested in studying Turkish because he said he doesn’t know very many Muslim people and wanted to learn more about them.

Baljon said it was his AP human geography teacher who got him interested in studying internationally. He plans on studying international relations at college, preferably at Georgetown, he said.