In April, students in the advanced placement world history class at Redmond High School (RHS) were assigned a project in which they had to research a post-World War II conflict in a foreign country.

Sophomore Levi Casto researched the country of Georgia for the project.

“(Georgia) had come up in my AP exams and I found it interesting,” he said about why he chose that country to research.

STRAIGHT FROM THE SOURCE

Part of that research included sending an email to the current prime minister of Georgia, Irakli Garibashvili. Because who better to tell him about Georgia than the country’s head of state, the 16-year-old asked. He said he was inspired to do this by an activity he had participated in at the Old Fire House Teen Center (OFH) in downtown Redmond in which the teens wrote letters to celebrities and other well-known individuals.

In his email to the Georgian prime minister, Casto wrote that the conflict he was researching was Georgia’s secession from the Soviet Union in 1991 and the country’s movement toward independence. He wrote that he had found a “number of sources analyzing the causal factors of this movement,” but he believed a primary source would be most valuable to his research. He asked if Garibashvili could explain his perspective on Georgia’s movement toward independence.

While Casto emailed Garibashvili (after finding the contact information on the country’s government website) in hopes of learning more about the about Georgia, he did not expect any sort of response.

So when he received a letter — both as an email and a physical copy in the mail a couple weeks later — from not just someone from Garibashvili’s office, but the prime minister himself, the teen was more than a little surprised.

“I was delighted…I was kind of in disbelief for a little bit,” he said about receiving Garibashvili’s response. “It means a lot to me. It certainly speaks volumes of what it means to him.”

HOPE FOR THE FUTURE

Levan Karumidze, media adviser to the administration of the Government of Georgia, said the prime minister receives a high volume of emails, which are reviewed by his staff. In the instance of Casto’s letter, Karumidze said they knew Garibashvili would appreciate reading an email from an American student who was interested in Georgia and that he would want to help him with his research paper.

“Prime Minister Garibashvili was impressed by Levi’s initiative to write him directly as well as his intellectual curiosity about Georgia,” Karumidze said. “He was heartened that an American high school student was researching a small country that serves as a strategically important ally to the U.S.”

Karumidze added that while the prime minister personally reads and responds to email correspondence, his correspondence with Casto was the first time that he has responded to an email from a high school student in the United States.

“The prime minister believes it is important for young people to engage in current events so that they can use their talents and knowledge to better their community and country,” Karumidze said. “The U.S. is Georgia’s premier strategic ally. Our governments work together closely on a number of important issues related to economics and security…We are proud of the close relationship between our two countries, and students like Levi give us hope that the spirit of cooperation will continue for generations to come.”

In his letter to Casto, Garibashvili wrote that he was excited that Casto was “taking the time to learn more about Georgia and its independence.”

“I am truly impressed by your interest in Georgia and hope that your report turns out well,” Garibashvili wrote. “I hope you will continue to learn about Georgia as it is students like you who will continue to strengthen the important partnership between our two great nations in the future.”

Garibashvili — who at 32, is the world’s youngest leader of a democratic country — told Casto that he was only a child when Georgia gained its independence 24 years ago, but vividly remembered that moment as it marked the beginning of his nation’s “recovery from Soviet rule.”

“In 200 years under Russian rule, freedom and independence constituted the main idea and foundation upon which my nation set its hope,” Garibashvili wrote. “The same principles of liberty and freedom that inspired the American Revolution were embodied in Georgia’s drive for independence.”

MORE THAN JUST AN ASSIGNMENT

Lesley Cordell, Casto’s teacher for the AP world history class, said students were required to find three primary sources for their research paper and Casto found the ultimate primary source.

“The funny thing is that he didn’t tell us of this correspondence,” Cordell said. “He is far too modest to put himself forward in that way, but it does not surprise me in the slightest that he went far above and beyond what most students would think to do to research their topic.”

Casto said working on the project Cordell assigned has really opened his eyes. He admitted that he was not super interested in history before this, only enough to sign up for the AP class. But that has changed.

“There’s a lot more to world history that what’s already passed,” he said, adding that the world is constantly changing and developing.

When asked which other heads of state he would like to contact, Casto mentioned Fidel Castro, but tensions may still be a bit high between Cuba and the United States for that at the moment. Another person he would love to contact is Xi Jinping, the president of China.

“I’d like to write to him and learn how China is one of the few successful socialist countries,” Casto said.