CLEARFIELD — Farhan Mahmud, 16, of Dhaka, Bangladesh, is a 10th grade foreign exchange student at Clearfield Area High School and he is using this opportunity to learn and experience as much of America as possible.
Farhan said he wanted to come to America as a foreign exchange student when he saw a commercial on television. And after numerous evaluations, several rounds of vigorous testing and interviews and background checks, he was awarded a U.S. State Department Youth Exchange and Study Scholarship, which is for students predominantly from Muslim countries to study for a school year in the United States.
Britany Madera and her husband Jeremy Cutler had previously hosted a YES scholarship winner from Malaysia, and volunteered again to be a host family. They were paired with Farhan.
Farhan arrived in Clearfield on Aug. 3, and one of the first things he did was attend in the Clearfield County Fair.
“It was a lot of fun,” Farhan said of the fair.
He said he is enjoying his time in Clearfield, but acknowledged it is significantly different than Dhaka.
Bangladesh is one of the most densely populated countries in the world and its capital Dhaka is a city of roughly 10 million people.
Like most people in Dhaka, Farhan and his family live in a small apartment. He said they live in a new section of the city that is growing rapidly.
He said most schools in Bangladesh have little instruction in music and the arts and although they have some sports, it is not as extensive as it is here. So Farhan is taking advantage of this opportunity to participate in as many of these activities at Clearfield Area High School as possible.
Back in Bangladesh he plays soccer, so in the fall he joined the high school soccer team where he played defense. He planned to be on the swim team during the winter but an injury prevented him from doing so.
In the spring he is excited about playing on the school’s tennis team. Farhan said he has never played tennis before because in Bangladesh tennis is considered to be a “posh sport,” played only by the wealthy, so he is looking forward to the opportunity to play on the team.
He also participated in the school play “Clue” where he played the role of “The Motorist,” and he is also a cast member and chorus member of the high school musical “Mamma Mia” where he plays the role of the priest who marries the couple.
He also sings in the school choir and will be going to Indianapolis for the Memorial Day Parade with the music department.
Farhan said he also always wanted to learn to play guitar, so he is now taking guitar lessons at school and is teaching himself how to play the keyboard/piano.
“He’s pretty good at it,” Madera said of Farhan’s keyboard playing.
She said after his the first day of playing, he had three songs memorized on the keyboard.
He also attended the Pennsylvania Farm Show in Harrisburg and has visited Baltimore and Washington D.C.
Farhan said he also hopes to attend a Pirates baseball game in Pittsburgh. He said he’s never been to a baseball game before but said it looks similar to cricket, which he plays on a club team in Bangladesh.
Another activity on his “to do list” before returning home is attend a session of court at the Clearfield County Courthouse.
Farhan said one of his favorite places he has visited so far is the University Park Campus of Penn State University. He said he wants to study mechanical engineering in college and hopes to get a scholarship to attend college in America. But he said he would also be happy to attend college in Europe, or Bangladesh or wherever the opportunity presents itself.
He said school itself is significantly different here than back home. Farhan was able to test into one of the best academic schools in Dhaka, which is a combination of a public and private school. He said the school is run by the military but it is funded by private businesses.
At his school in Dhaka, the students stay in one classroom and the teachers move from room to room, but in Clearfield it’s the students who move from classroom to classroom.
The biggest adjustment for Farhan was the length of the school day. In Dhaka, they attend school from 7:30 a.m. to noon, but the classes are fast paced and students are expected to do a lot of work at home and most students spend several hours a day after school doing homework and studying.
In Clearfield, with extra curricular activities, he said it is not unusual for him to arrive home after 10 p.m.
Farhan is fluent in English. He said in Bangladesh the native language is Bangla but its schools have two curriculums, the British curriculum where all the classes, except for Bangla class, are taught in English. In the Bangla curriculum, all the classes are taught in Bangla except for English class.
Farhan said he has been in the British curriculum since he started school, so he has been studying English for roughly 13 years.
Plus, almost all social media is in English and he and his friends often speak in English when using social media.
And he said the math classes he is taking in Dhaka are more advanced than the ones he is taking in Clearfield. For example, the topics he studied in math class last year in Dhaka are the topics he is studying this year at Clearfield.
The weather here in Clearfield is significantly different than in Bangladesh. In Bangladesh they have six seasons, summer, monsoon/rainy, autumn, late autumn, winter and spring.
He said the summers here and in Bangladesh are about the same but he said it doesn’t get colder than the mid 50s in Dhaka and he said he saw snow for the first time in Clearfield.
Farhan said he likes the snow and enjoys getting into snowball fights as long as it isn’t too windy.
He also said he hopes to try skiing before winter is over.
Farhan wanted to try ice skating when he went to the YMCA’s Winter Festival at Parker Dam last month with the school Key Club but the ice wasn’t thick enough for skating.
But he said he and his host family plan to go ice skating in State College before he returns to Bangladesh.
Farhan said what he enjoys most about Clearfield is the people. He said they have been caring and welcoming and allowed him to participate in all of their activities. Plus, he said he has made a lot of good friends during his stay.
“Here the people have been so good to me,” Farhan said. “The welcome I have received is much better than I ever expected.”
Farhan has given numerous presentations to various groups on his home country of Bangladesh. As a foreign exchange student, for most people here, he is the first person from Bangladesh that they have met and he said he has a responsibility to represent his country and his culture while he is here.
He said his experience in America has inspired his 13-year-old sister, Mussharat, who now wants to come to America as a foreign exchange student.
Farhan returns to Bangladesh in June and said although he will be happy to see his family and friends again, he knows he will miss and be “homesick” for Clearfield when he leaves.
