Feature

IUB Student attends Leadership
Training Program in US

Radian Khan

EACH year the U.S State Department picks a number of students from around the globe and sponsors them to come to the U.S for a month-long training program. This year there were 120 students altogether from different countries such as Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Egypt, Turkey, Tunisia, South Africa, Kenya, Vietnam among other countries. I happened to be one of the lucky students to get selected from Bangladesh for this year's program. I was placed as a guest in Green River Community College, located in a beautiful town called Auburn, which was about a forty minutes drive from Seattle. Green River hosted 20 students in total, 8 from Bangladesh, 8 from India and 4 from Pakistan. Other students were grouped and hosted by universities like the University of Alabama, University of Arkansas, South Illinois University, Nazareth College, etc.

The main objective of the program was to teach students the values of leadership. Thought he course of the program we had classes on different subjects focusing on leadership skills, bringing in examples from the American history, its politics, history of its music, movies, geography etc. I had never been a very good listener before but I have to admit that the classes were so engaging that at the end of every lesson, we would all hope that more time given on the subject, as it was never possible to review the full histories in just one class.

We did some voluntary work as well. Although some of the students had previous experience in participating in similar activities, for me it was the first time and, undoubtedly it was a very interesting experience. We went to Auburn food bank and Tacoma food bank where we sorted and packed food for the homeless people. It was a different feeling once we were done with the day's job. For the first time I realized how great it felt to help so many people at a time.

Days passed by fast and we reached the end of the course. We had our presentation on GRCC on our farewell dinner where we were given the certificate of completion. After that, we set out for a four day excursion to some of the most beautiful places in the Washington State. We went on a cruise to Port Townsend, visited Jamestown of the S'Klallam Native American Tribe and the Hurricane Ridge Olympic National Park and its snowy peaks overlooking the San Juan Islands and Canadian islands on the other side. We also visited Forks where the people were obsessed about the movie 'Twilight' since it was shot there. We went on river rafting on Hoh River and went to the coast of the Pacific Ocean.

We stayed at five different places during the excursion and lastly stayed at Lake Quinault Lodge, beside the beautiful Lake Quinault where in 1937, President Franklin D. Roosevelt stayed during his visit to the Olympic Peninsula area on a fact-finding mission.

After that we set out for the capital, Washington D.C, where all the 120 students came together for a final presentation on our trip. We had an exciting stay at Washington D.C during those 5 days, met new people, and had cultural presentations- where people presented their nationality and its culture and set up cultural stalls. We also went for a day long trip where we saw the historical monuments such the Lincon Memorial, White House, Capital Hill and others.

For our final presentation we made a wonderful video which included the most memorable moments of our journey. We made an act representing the native American folk tale of their sacred animals- the Salmon, Wolf, and Raven. Our presentation ended with the song “One World” originally sang by Blue. However we modified the lyrics, making it sound more like a typical song that all the students in the world would sing, trying to come together as one, no matter where they are from. Everyone simply loved our presentation. After the presentation, we were given the priceless certificates of the completion of this program. At that moment, holding the certificate from the U.S. State Department itself, I felt as if I have accomplished one of the most important goals of my life.

(The writer is a student of the School of Engineering and Computer Science, Independent University)