Students from former Soviet republics get taste of democracy

Aleksis Ratenieks stood outside a polling site in Hempfield on Tuesday morning, working with fellow Hempfield Area students to greet voters and see democracy in action during the primary election in Pennsylvania.

“It really does make me appreciate democracy. It makes me appreciate democracy, with all that horrible stuff that my grandparents and great-grandparents had to live through,” said Ratenieks, an 18-year-old foreign exchange student from Latvia, a Baltic nation between Lithuania and Estonia.

Ratenieks and fellow foreign exchange student Tengo Kandelaki, from the country of Georgia, are part of the U.S. Department of State’s Future Leaders Exchange program for students from countries formerly part of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. They are seniors at Hempfield Area but must return to school in their homelands — one year for Ratenieks and two for Kandelaki — before they are considered high school graduates.

Kandelaki, 17, who lives near the capital city of Tbilisi, said they were able to go to Washington, D.C., to learn about the federal government and meet representatives from Pennsylvania.

“I’m learning about the importance of local government and the importance of voting and participating in local elections,” said Kandelaki, who met voters as they entered the polling site at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Hempfield’s West Point neighborhood.

Outside the polling site at Maplewood Presbyterian Church, Ratenieks, who is interested in political science, received a pep talk about the importance of democracy from former Westmoreland County Commissioner Charles Anderson, who met Ratenieks as he left the polls.

“Civics are important,” said Anderson, recalling a foreign exchange student he knew when he was a Hempfield Area student decades ago.

Ratenieks said he is considering studying political science when he goes to college, either in Latvia or possibly the U.S.

The two students said they were taught English beginning in first grade. They were joined by other Hempfield Area students who participate in Project 18, a course in state and local government taught by Ken Stough. The program is in its 50th year.

By having about 70 students in his class work the polls, “they’re getting the whole election experience,” Stough said. Candidates spoke to the students in class and the students got to decide who they would work for on Election Day, Stough said.