Student stays focused on the future
By Larry Meyer | Argus Observer
Monday, May 21, 2007 10:48 AM PDT
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| Although busy with classes and activities at Treasure Valley Community College, Ulegbek Baymuradov, a student from Uzbekistan, finds some quiet time for study in Barber Hall on the TVCC campus. |
ONTARIO — Uzbekistan’s Ulugbek “Bek” Baymuradov first arrived in America as an exchange student, but he is back now attending Treasure Valley Community College, and he said he is looking forward to spending an extra year in the Treasure Valley to serve as the international vice president of the Phi Theta Kappa honor society.
Baymuradov will eventually go back to his native land, but he said he will depart with a number of great memories of his stay in America.
Baymuradov was recently elected to his new office at the honor society’s international convention in Nashville, Tenn., and it is a position which will require that he stay another year at TVCC, since he must be a community college student to serve.
Phi Theta Kappa is the honor society of two-year colleges and is the largest college honor society in the world.
Baymuradov is also president of the TVCC chapter of Phi Theta Kappa.
He was an exchange student at Payette High School from 2002 to 2003 and then went back to his country, in Central Asia, to finish school there.
“I went back and graduated from high school, I was trying to enroll in universities back in my country,” he said.
Enrolling in a university in Uzbekistan carried its own set of challenges, he said.
“We have some social problems,” he said.
Baymuradov explained that to get into college in Uzbekistan often requires bribes as well as money just to attend a higher education center.
Meanwhile, Baymuradov said he kept in touch with his host family, the Scott Bonner family, in Payette. The Bonners, he said, learned of his challenges attending a college in Uzbekistan and offered a suggestion.
“They were the ones that mentioned about TVCC,” he said.
Baymuradov said he knew very little about TVCC and did not understand that he could take his first two years of college at the local school.
“I liked the idea,” he said. “I know people around here. It’s affordable.”
Baymuradov, 20, was able to stay with his host family again when he came back, for the first year, but they moved to Utah, and he now lives in Ontario.
“I would like to major in economics and political science, and focus on international diplomacy,” he said, with hopes of becoming a leader in his country.
“My time in the U.S. has been enjoyable,” Baymuradov said, adding he has been well-accepted in the community.
No Dhimmi wrote on Aug 14, 2009 9:38 PM:
And this isn't "racist," because Islam is not a race, anymore than Communism or Nazism are races, both of which killed far fewer people than Islam.
Disgusting. "