Senior Anna Mdzinarashvili is one of Northtowns many foreign exchange students. Anna is from Georgia. Georgia is a country at the intersection of Europe and Asia. It is also a former part of the Soviet Republic. The capital Tbilisi is known for its diverse architecture and timeless cobblestone roads.

“I love spending summer in Georgia because it’s really beautiful. I like going to the Black Sea,” Mdzinarashvili said.

Anna is a finalist for the Flex Foreign Exchange Program. The program began in 1993 and is a competitive merit-based scholarship program funded by the US Department of State.

“[Flex} is possible from 9^thgrade to 12^thgrade and it’s a competition where they choose eight kids to come to the United States in different parts and then they choose placement organizations which choose families for us. You don’t know where you are going, then we talk to psychologists and they decide who will go,” Mdzinarashvili said.

Anna has been in the United States for seven months now.

“It was like a dream come true. I always wanted to visit the United States, it was a dream of my childhood. It is the best thing in my life that could’ve happened,” Mdzinarashvili said when asked about her journey to the United States.

In the Flex program, students get to go on different trips around the country and participate in different community service projects. The foreign exchange students get to experience what the United States is like, so that they can take it back to their home countries.