About Me

My name is Tom Randolph and I am from Morganton, NC. I am currently seventeen years old, and I am a junior at Robert L. Patton High School. I am applying to study abroad because, obviously, I wish to learn more about a culture other than my own. But aside from the obvious reasons, I would like to study abroad to become more worldly and to meet new people with new perspectives and ideas other than my own.

In return for my study abroad, I plan to encourage all that I can to take advantage of the great opportunities provided by AFS. In the future, I plan to attend either the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill or Davidson College and I plan on studying Political Science and International Relations. Hopefully, my time in Chile will provide a good foundation for an education in International Relations. Prior to my traveling to Chile, I will spend six weeks at the Governor's School of North Carolina. My friends and family have been very supportive of me and my decision to spend six months in a foreign country: they have helped me in many ways when applying and mentally preparing for such a long stay away from home.

I have nearly raised all of the funds necessary to fund my study abroad by working at Byrd, Byrd Ervin LLC, a local law firm. My family has also been quite generous in offering monetary support. Becoming an AFSer has been quite challenging considering that my daily schedule is usually completely filled with club meetings, rigorous classwork/homework, and other social activities. This made the application quite difficult to prepare, but after much work I was able to complete the application with success. I would like to give my sincerest thanks to the sponsor of my Global Leaders Scholarship for providing me with the opportunity of a lifetime.