Twin Lakes foreign exchange student Munif Kader Chowdhury just returned from a trip to Washington D.C. The trip he went on was a part of a Civic Education Workshop that was funded by the US Department of State and executed by the American Civics Center and American Councils for International Education. The selection process is difficult and it’s only available for two specific scholarship exchange students. It was hard to get into and it’s only available for two specific scholarship exchange students which include Future Leaders Exchange (FLEX) students and Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange and Study (KLYES) students.

Chowdhury had to write an essay addressing either a social, political or economic issue in his country and how he would help solve it to get selected. His essay talked about the education system and how Arts subjects aren’t given enough attention in his home country of Bangladesh. Chowdhury is the only KLYES exchange student to make it in the workshop. His host brother, who is also a Twin Lakes exchange student via the FLEX program, Matviy Kotolyk got selected as well. Kotolyk will travel to Washington DC during the last week of March.

When asked about his experience, Chowdhury said, “It was absolutely lovely to be on an educational trip to an historical place like Washington D.C. with a hundred other exchange students from over 37 countries! Over the week, we were exposed to a great deal of cultures and civic education and I can confidently say it was one of the best weeks of my exchange year so far!”

Chowdhury is a business student at Twin Lakes. He takes Interactive Media at Twin Lakes and his assignment while away was to create a video about his trip.