U$500 SCHOLARSHIP

The scholarship is a condition of the government to make the program look more like an exchange student than a work and travel program.

It's often used on ESL classes that will vary between 2 to 4 months (ANYTHING else will cost you a lot more). I MUST say that even though it's a requirement, it's NOT the MAIN objective of the program, you are here to WORK, not to STUDY. You CANNOT apply to a university and take classes perusing a major unless you leave the Au Pair agency and change your J1 Visa to a student Visa (F1) and pay for school yourself.

The courses the schools offer to the Au Pairs are CONTINUING ED CLASSES and will NOT ADD anything to your scholar curriculum, maybe your parents can help you out and you can pay the difference on the U$500 to take better classes. The scholarship is for exclusive educational purpose and CANNOT under any circumstances be used for something else.

The location of your classes must be the nearest educational facility to 'your new home'. However, if you have more that one option, you must choose the one that fits better to your WORK SCHEDULE as the classes are a complement to your WORK program and NOT AT ALL the main goal.