By Amer Mahmutovic (YES 2023-2024 Bosnia and Herzegovina placed by AFS-USA in Silver Spring, Maryland)

From the first day as an exchange student at Wheaton High School in Wheaton, Maryland, I tried to adapt quickly and get involved in as many extracurricular activities as I could. Among the things I did, was to be a part of the School Fall Play, Swim and Dive team and even the captain of the school tennis team. Besides those activities, I was also part of many other school clubs. There was so much to do!

I was a junior on my exchange year and during my last week of school, I saw the assistant principal, and he asked me if I could come to school at a town hall meeting on 10th of June. June 10th was one day before my departure from my host family, and I was planning to pack during that day, but I decided to come to school because he asked me to come. During our conversation, I asked him if there was anything that I needed to prepare for the town hall meeting, but he said that I just needed to come.

I felt like he was preparing something for me and that he just did not want to say anything, but I was not sure about that. I came to school on June 10th and during the 4th period we were called to go down to the school auditorium for a town hall meeting. The teachers and school administrators talked about the plans for next school year and for college applications for upcoming seniors. Time passed but there was still nothing for me in this presentation. After all the information from the presentation, they started giving some awards to appreciate student’s achievements during this school year.

The last award was called “Knight of the Year” and the “Knight” is a word for “student” in my US high school because the Knight is a symbol and a mascot for my school. The assistant principal started talking about the student who “defined the definition of being a Wheaton Knight” and the student who “immersed himself in everything that Wheaton had to offer.” I was listening to this, but I still didn’t know who was the student that was getting this award. After the last sentence, when the assistant principal said that it was a student who was at Wheaton High School for his first year and that it was the student who would be going back to his country the next day, I knew that this was me because I was the only exchange student in my school. He announced my name, and I just heard the thunderous applause of everyone in the auditorium.

I walked up to the podium where I received the Knight of the Year certificate and the gift from my school. I was surprised, and I didn’t prepare anything to talk about, but the assistant principal gave me the microphone and I said a few sentences from my heart about how grateful I was for this opportunity.

This was an amazing way to close my exchange experience at my US high school and I will never forget the feeling I had while walking up to the podium and receiving the Knight of the Year award. After I came home to Bosnia, I realized that my goal to make my exchange year remarkable and to leave my footprint at my US high school was actually accomplished. I'll forever be grateful the amazing opportunity YES enabled me to have! It was such an amazing honor to represent my country!