Ehtesam Utsho from Bangladesh, YES Student. Hosted in Portland, Oregon. Attending Benson Poly Tech High School.

Utsho is an amazing student. We are so glad to have him in our team. He is an asset to the community and an outstanding ambassador for AFS, Bangladesh and intercultural programs.

He arrived on August 5th and has already given many hours of his time volunteering. The morning after he arrived in Portland Oregon, we went for a walk in our local city park. Utsho saw a sign in the Rose Garden asking for people to volunteer to help with keeping the roses beautiful. After we came back from the walk, he emailed the address asking how he could help and the next day began to volunteer with the Friends of Peninsula Park Rose Garden. He is dead-heading roses. He has never done that before.

That same day, he walked into the Peninsula Park Community Center and asked if there was a volunteer position available for him to help…and of course there was. He was asked to help feed the local under-privileged children lunches every day starting at noon to 3 pm. He goes every day, faithfully.

He also found out that the local county library needs help. He walks a half mile two times a week to help at the library as well.

He gets up early in the mornings, gets ready to volunteer and works all day. He is an outstanding YES student.