Extract of her personal essay (note: essay unedited)

We are 4 members in our family and my Mom & Dad have always been very supportive with my decisions. It’s meant a lot to me having an elder brother growing up, we have a lot in common. Some same friends & I can always ask him for advice with everything. We have a very strong brother- sister bond. The place where we live has been an awesome place to grow up since it’s surrounded by water & there are many beaches and great natural forest.

I am a very active person. I love all kinds of sports & hobbies. I have been playing handball for 10 years. This year our team was placed third in Finland. I think that being in a tem for that long has taught me to adapt & consider everyone in the team. I like teamwork. Jogging is also something I do. I think it’s relaxing to run with music in my ears. I have loved swimming all my life. I remember swimming at the lake by our summer cottage every day, all summer with all my cousins when we were younger. That’s some of my favourite memories.

I attend a fitness centre doing aerobics. I also like cooking & trying new food, reading & listening to music.

My family has travelled a lot and I like to know a new culture & exploring new places.

Our family has 2 dogs. I like animals a lot, but I’m especially a bit afraid of birds. Crows are the worst.

I would describe myself as very outgoing & easy to be with. I have a lot of friends that I’ve been friends with since kindergarten. It’s really nice since many of them live in my neighbourhood. We like to just hang, go to the cinema or go to the centre of Helsinki. I’ve never been to Australia before & I want to experience something new, try new sports like tennis and all kinds of water activities & learn a new culture.

Extract of his personal essay (note: essay unedited)

My name is Kalle I am 17 years old. I live in Gothenburg, (the west coast of Sweden) with my sister, Mimmi, who is 15 years old, my mum, Annette, and my dad, Dick. (they are both 48 years old).

I love, and have always loved animals, we have two cats Nala and Kiara.

I love being outdoors and being active with different sports like swimming, jetskiing and other watersports, working out, hiking, biking and pretty much anything even juggling.

I have always spent alot of time outdoors in nature studying snakes, lizards and such. It has been through my interest for nature that I learned about Australia, by watching the different kinds of wildlife that Steve Irwin showed in his TV show.
 

I enjoy spending time with friends, and we usually do different sports together like swimming, basketball or tennis.
 

Me and my family have been travelling alot throughout the years and mainly to countries like Greece, Thailand, Gran Canaria so through that I have gotten to see and do amazing things like snorkeling in Thailand and scuba diving in Greece.
 

I think I would be a good exchange student because I want to experience Australia the way the locals do and my goal or what I hope to feel like is basically an Austrailian for a year. I would love to learn what it means to be Australian. I hope to meet lots of new friends and I also of course hope that I will get a really great host family that I will fit into.

Extract of her personal essay (note: essay unedited)

I live with my family & my older brother in a small village. We have a big garden with a swimming pool & lots of animals. My dog is very cute, she is a 6 year old Labrador. Last year I got a cat & I love her because she always makes me happy after a long day at school. I also have birds & a rabbit. I am an animal lover & since I was 5 years old my dream has been to become a vet. I would like to help animals when they are ill. I think I would be very talented in this job, because I think I would be able to keep a cool head in stressful situations.

My favourite hobbies are horseback riding, shopping & meeting friends. I go riding 3 times a week & I have also won some spring tournaments. I love Chinese food & pizza. I am allergic to milk products but I can eat everything, because I take pills for my allergies.

I think I am a very friendly & communicative person with a good sense of humor & I love to laugh. My friends say that it’ s never boring with me, because I can also laugh about myself. It’s very important to me that other people are honest, because I am also an honest person myself.

I am very glad that I have a very good relationship with my family. My Mother is very important to me because I can talk with her about everything. I admire my brother because he is very cool & he always has time for me. My Father makes me laugh all the time, because he is very nice & also a little bit mad. My Mother works as a nurse in a Doctor’s surgery and my Father is a farmer.

My friends are very important to me & we meet often going to the cinema or staying over.

I am looking forward to meeting you soon, immersing myself in another way of life & culture. Thank you.

Extract of her personal essay (note: essay unedited)

I am an open-minded, positive & friendly girl living in the south of Finland. We are 4 in our family, Mom, Dad & my little brother. We also have 2 poodles. Our family is bilingual; Dad speaks Swedish to me & my little brother, but otherwise we speak Finnish & Dad speaks Finnish with Mom.

My hobbies are scuba diving & snowboarding. Scuba diving is a way to relax & spend time with Dad who is really close to me. The totally new world underwater is fascinating & different every time. The weightless feeling what you get when you dive is amazing. I have been diving with our diving club in Egypt and Norway.

In winter I like to go snowboarding with Mom & my brother. I like it because it’s difficult & you need to train it a lot. And no matter how good you are you can always get better.

I also like reading, it’s a way to think nothing & let your thoughts fly. Every book is a whole new world & the story is different to everybody.

My friends mean also a lot to me & they live all around Finland. Sometimes we are studying, cooking, walking with dogs or just hanging & talking about everything.

Our family is close & I love it. We are eating together almost every evening & I can talk about everything with Mom & Dad. Sometimes my brother & I cook together, or I help him with home works, or then we are playing with dogs or jumping on trampoline. In summer, we spend a lot of time at our summer cottage located in middle of Finland. It is next to a small lake & has no running water or internet. I love spending time there.

I want to be an exchange student to learn English, get new experiences, and get to know new people.

Extract of her personal essay (note: essay unedited)

My name is Melissa, but my friends & family call me Melli. I live on the countryside in Southern Finland, close to Helsinki, the capital city of Finland. When I was a child I was a little bit shy, but nowadays I am outgoing & I love to meet new people & make new friends. I am also a happy person & I like to get new experiences. Going to Australia for a whole year is going to be the biggest experience in my entire life! I am looking forward to it.

I have a Mother, Father & one younger brother. We all live in the same place, which is a quite big detached house. We have pets, three playful dogs & two beautiful cats. My cats are always there waiting for me & they always want to be with me, that is one of the reasons why I love them so much! I often play with them & I am walking with them almost every day. They are very energetic.

My Mother tongue is Finnish but I am studying in Swedish & most of my relatives & friends speak Swedish.

Other things that I love to do on my spare time is being with friends. They are very important to me & I often hang out with them. Sometimes we do hobbies together; go shopping & party but most of the time we just chill; talk & laugh & maybe make some tasty food!

I enjoy zumba; which is a fitness sport where you mix a lot of different dances, body core; a mix of muscle work & balance. In winter downhill skiing and snowboarding are my favourite. I just learned how to snowboard so I am not so good at it, yet! In winter we can ice skate on our lakes.

In our warm summer we swim in our lakes so it would be lovely to come to Australia, a whole year without minus degrees just sounds good!…. See you, Melissa