Ozark Co. foreign students see state history up close

Atai Kaskymov, 18, of Kyrgyzstan, and Krista Dostálová, 15, of the Czech Republic, have spent the last few months at Gainesville High School learning about Missouri culture and history, but it was a recent trip to Jefferson City that gave the two foreign exchange students a new perspective on their current “home state.”

The two students, part of the international student exchange program ASSE-International, traveled with a group of 24 other foreign exchange students from 17 different countries last Friday to tour Missouri's capital city. The tour was led by Rep. Mike Kelley of Lamar, a current “host dad” to a student from the Ukraine. The tour included time at the governor's mansion, the decommissioned Missouri State Penitentiary, the state capitol and the Missouri Supreme Court building.

Governor's mansion

At the governor's mansion, a guide took the students through the library, great hall and dining room of the 140-year-old home, providing information about Missouri's past governors, the mansion's architecture and the history of the mansion.

State penitentiary

The students’ second stop was at the historic Missouri State Penitentiary, the longest continually operating prison west of the Mississippi. Built in 1836 and decommissioned in 2004, the prison was named the “bloodiest 47 acres in America” by Time magazine.

Accompanied by retired prison employees, the students heard firsthand accounts of historic prison homicides and famous executions as they visited old cellblocks that once housed famous inmates including “Pretty Boy” Floyd, Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassinator James Earl Ray and heavyweight boxing champion Sonny Liston, who was famously defeated by Muhammad Ali during the glory days of his career.

The students were allowed to tour all four levels of the oldest remaining cellblock on the MSP grounds; then they were led into the dungeon known as “the hole.” Once all 24 students were positioned in the 20-by-20-foot cell, the retired prison guard turned the lights out and asked the students to imagine what it would be like to spend months, or even years, in the pitch-black “hole,” oftentimes with eight other prisoners and only bread and water to survive.

He then told the lively story of “Firebug” Johnson, an inmate who spent 17 years in the dungeon cell as punishment for his many infamous attempts to burn down the prison.

The last stop on the tour was the MSP gas chamber, where 40 inmates were executed. The students were able to enter the gas chamber's viewing area, the holding cell and the chamber itself, even sitting in the execution chair that was used throughout the prison's history. A large frame held the photos of all the inmates who were executed there, with their crimes listed below.

Capitol and Supreme Court Building

At the capitol, Rep. Kelley ordered pizza and gave a thorough tour of the building. The students were taken through the entire capitol, including a stop at the whispering gallery, a circular loft that was mathematically designed by an acoustics expert so a person standing in the gallery can hear the faintest whisper from someone directly across the space, a distance of 65 feet.

Atai said he was “amazed when I could whisper to my friends who were far away from me and I could hear them. It was the first such kind of room that I have ever seen.” Although Krista was nervous about the height of the whispering gallery, which sits high within the Capitol's dome, she said she was also really surprised by its unique acoustic quality.

Next the students climbed to the very top of the rotunda, a special privilege not allowed to the general public.

The last stop of the trip was to Missouri's Supreme Court Building, where the students toured one of the courtrooms and the Supreme Court Library and heard an explanation of Missouri's judicial system and some of Missouri's more historic cases brought before the Supreme Court.

Krista and Atai

Krista lives with host mom and dad Bill and Sandie Steele of Tecumseh, and Atai lives with host mom Shannon Pool of Gainesville. Atai's foreign exchange experience is funded through the FLEX (Future Leaders Exchange) Program, a scholarship program administered by the Department of State to provide an opportunity for high school students from Eurasia to experience life in a democratic society in order to promote democratic values and institutions back home.

The students are very appreciative of their time in Missouri. Krista said she is amazed by the scenery of the Ozarks, an attribute she has gotten to enjoy regularly from her home in Tecumseh and along the North Fork of the White River. Atai said he’s been “dreaming to come to the United States since fifth grade. As a FLEX finalist, I am not only an exchange students but an ambassador of my country, Kyrgyzstan, one of the post-Soviet countries situated in Asia.”

He said he also looked forward to “sharing my culture with students and adults. Also, I am enjoying learning your culture, as we have different morals and religions. The experience of an average American teenager is one of the best things that happened to me. I have a great time - everyday something new.”

For more information about the ASSE-International program or to consider becoming an outbound foreign exchange student, call Shannon Pool at 417-679-0263 or visit assehosts.com.

<p>Atai Kaskymov, right, and Krista Dostálová stand at the Corps of Discovery Monument in front of the Missouri capitol during a recent trip to Jefferson City.</p>