News was delivered to Akhaltsikhe, Georgia, on March 27, 2019, that sophomore Miranda Aptsiauri qualified for a scholarship to study in America. As of Aug. 16, 2019, her dreams finally came true when her flight landed in America. According to Aptsiauri, the happiest moment of her life was when she found out she was able to live and study in America.

“I have so many good memories here [already],” Aptsiauri said. “[When I was accepted into the program] I was so happy and when I was looking at my family and [saw] how proud they were [of me], I promised myself to [make them proud].”

Aptsiauri said her home in Georgia is a small city that has existed for centuries.

“My city is called Akhaltsikhe and it means ‘a new castle,’” Aptsiauri said.“It exists from 9th century and there are about 20 thousand people [who live there].”

Aptsiauri said leaving her family in Georgia was a difficult choice.

“[When I came to America] I [left] behind my family and it was the hardest decision of my life,” Aptsiauri said. “I miss my family so much and living 10 thousand kilometers away from home is really hard, but I always remind myself Denzel Washington’s quote: ‘when you are praying for the rain, you have to be ready to deal with it.’”

Aptsiauri said a program called FLEX, or Foreign Leaders Exchange, gave her a full scholarship to live in America.

“FLEX is an exchange program for post-soviet union countries and my country, Georgia, is [a] post-soviet union one,” Aptsiauri said. “FLEX is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State and it is a scholarship to study one academic year in America. I decided to participate in [the] program and I [got in].”

Aptsiauri said she had to go through three rounds of testing to qualify to be a FLEX finalist. She also said she had many documents to fill out and had to remain patient throughout the process.

“FLEX has three [difficult] round[s] [that involved testing my English skills]” Aptsiauri said. “I got results about finalist status on 27th of March. I [left] Georgia on the 14th of August, and until [I arrived], I was filling out documents every single day.”

Aptsiauri’s host mother as well as social studies instructor Angela Madsen, said she was encouraged to host foreign exchange students from her own experiences as an exchange teacher.

“After I finished a global teacher exchange for the US State Department, an email came across my inbox asking for host parents,” Madsen said. “I heard students talk about the value of [FLEX] and I thought ‘well if I believe in global education, I’d better put my money where my mouth is and live my values. [My family]  hosted our first student in 2015 and our second in 2017.”

Aptsiauri said she was most excited about how schooling would work at Westside and how she would be able to take classes that she’s interested in.

“I want to be an architect and designer, so I study interior design and other art classes,” Aptsiauri said. “In Georgia, we can’t choose classes, this is the main and most important difference for me. In Georgia, the education system is mostly concentrated on general knowledge, that’s really important because I know a little about everything.”

Aptsiauri said her host family is supportive and makes her feel at home. 

“I have siblings in Georgia and I was really wanting to have siblings here, too, [so] when I heard that [Madsen] had three children, I was so happy,” Aptsiauri said. “My host family is amazing…they are [constantly] supporting me all the time and doing everything to [make me] feel like [I’m at] home.”

Aptsiauri said that her host family connects activities they do back to her home country of Georgia.

“My host family took me to Kansas City [and the] World War II museum and I saw Georgian products [there],” Aptsiauri said. “[My host family knows] how hard it is to be far away from home [so they are] always [trying] to show me things from Georgia [and] [taking] me to places where there’s Georgian stuff.”

Aptsiauri said she is glad to be living in Omaha, as she dreamed of it last year while still in Georgia. 

“There was a day I went downtown and I was [at] Bob Kerry’s bridge,” Aptsiauri said. “I was walking in those streets, in those places, and I was smiling. I was so happy because when I was in Georgia and heard about my host family and [found out] I would live in Omaha, I would google pictures and videos [of Omaha]. I was dreaming one day I would come [to Omaha]. Now I was walking in my dream. It was so exciting; so joyful. I loved it; it was a really amazing feeling when one day you’re in Georgia, wishing to go there…[then] the second day you are there.”