“I grew up in an environment in a developing country where I had nothing,” Pozhari, 18, an international exchange student at Iowa Central Community College, said. “I saw people around me in my community, and my country was struggling to maintain hope and to keep forward when everyone else was a long way down the road and we were just born as a country.”

Pozhari was 8 years old when Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia. Iowa and Kosovo have been sister states since 2013.

The partnership evolved from a relationship between the Iowa National Guard and the security forces of Kosovo. Iowa troops had a presence there from 2003 to 2008 to keep the peace as Kosovo separated from Serbia.

When Pozhari was 11, he had an unrelated near-death experience.

-Messenger photo by Chad Thompson
Miftar Pozhari, a native of Fort Dodge’s sister city Gjakova, Kosovo, poses on the main campus of Iowa Central Community College recently. Pozhari is a student at the college.

It didn’t matter that he was young. He said he was ready to carve out a new path.

“I remember waking up and realizing, even though I was young, which was really not important, I hadn’t done anything with my life,” Pozhari said. “I hadn’t dedicated my life to serving others. I hadn’t done anything to make the world better.

“If I was going to be whole, I needed to serve others, build my community, I needed to serve humanity.”

In the years that followed, Pozhari took action at school and in the community in Gjakova.

“I got involved in community service, with volunteerism,” he said. “I got involved with non-governmental organizations. Through the school I was able to give frequent speeches and hold projects that involved social issues, that involved the environment and everything to do so we could bring up the youth. That was my life’s work back home.”

Every day, he traveled from his village to school and back.

“I went to school in the morning from 8 to noon,” he said. “Then from noon to 7 or 8 in the evening, I was in the city in the projects. It was hard, but thankfully I relied on my friends and those close to me, and I made it.”

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In December 2016, Fort Dodge became sister cities with Gjakova.

Fort Dodge students were sent to camp TOKA in Kosovo as part of a youth exchange.

During the first exchange in the summer of 2017, Pozhari was one of the hosts, according to Dawn Larson, economic development specialist for the city of Fort Dodge.

Pozhari was selected by the school’s director there, Bedri Cahani.

“He chose Miftar as a student ambassador to promote the incoming youth exchange,” Larson said.

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In May of 2018, a delegation from Fort Dodge visited the school Pozhari attended. That delegation included Larson; Dr. Terry Moehnke, Fort Dodge city councilman and optometrist; and Eric Anderson, executive director at the Blanden Memorial Art Museum.

It was there, the three met Pozhari.

“He was more or less a spokesperson,” Moehnke recalled. “He was very fluent in English and very personable. He had interacted with a lot of officials and visitors. We opened up a good relationship with him at that time.”

Larson was impressed.

“Miftar is an exceptional individual,” Larson said. “He excels academically as well as his social and personal abilities.”

In July, Pozhari visited Fort Dodge and Iowa Central Community College as part of a sister city tour.

“He had a great desire and passion to attend school in the U.S., and I think the recognition of that began while he was here for the incoming youth exchange,” Larson said.

That same month, Moehnke and his wife, Pam Moehnke, met with Pozhari again during a Karl L. King Municipal Band concert at Oleson Park.

“Unbeknownst to him, we were working to find ways to bring him back Fort Dodge to attend Iowa Central,” Larson said. “I was making phone calls. Dr. Moehnke said he wanted to get him back to Fort Dodge.”

Larson and Moehnke started the conversation with Iowa Central President Dan Kinney.

Kinney met Pozhari at a Fort Dodge Rotary Club meeting.

“He’s a great kid,” Kinney said. “The first day I met him I got hit by Dawn and Terry, ‘what can we do to get him in school here?’

Pozhari had multiple scholarship opportunities at schools throughout Europe.

“A few other people here found out that I had scholarship opportunities to five other schools around the world, but I couldn’t take them for financial reasons,” Pozhari said.

Pozhari thought he would need to take a year or two to figure out how to pay for further education. But through private donations, Iowa Central was able to set up a scholarship fund for him.

“They were kind enough, generous enough, and I’ve been lucky enough that they gave me an opportunity here to test out and see if I qualified for a scholarship and I received a full ride here,” Pozhari said. “It’s been a roller coaster, really.”

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Pozhari arrived back in Fort Dodge for the start of college in the fall with one suitcase in hand, according to Moehnke.

“He didn’t have a lot of clothes with him,” Moehnke said. “We’ve helped with food items and things he may not have access to. He’s a long ways from home.”

Kinney found Pozhari some work in the Iowa Central administration office as a work study student.

He’s been a nice fit there, according to Ally Walter, Kinney’s assistant and Iowa Central board secretary.

“He’s extremely social,” Walter said. “He could talk to anybody. I think he knows every single person that walks through the door just through contacts on campus and classes. He’s just not afraid to put himself out there and make conversation.”

She’s appreciated having an extra set of hands around the office.

“I have a daughter that’s just a few years younger than him, so I tell him it’s a lot like having one of my kids in the office all day long,” she said. “Anything we throw at him, he does. We send him on errands. It’s fun because, not growing up here, he has all these things that are firsts for him.

“It’s been fun to find out more about his background, but also the things that are new to him in the United States. We brought Chinese in one day and he had never had Chinese food or a fortune cookie.”

Kinney has served as a mentor for Pozhari.

“He would stop in once a week at least and talk to Dr. Kinney,” Walter said. “Dr. Kinney would call him — making sure he got all the books he needed and things for his dorm.”

Kinney has enjoyed the connection.

“The best way to put it is I am the dad on campus for him,” Kinney said. “We would like to continue to see what we can do to keep doing this. It’s a neat relationship we have with that Sister City. I hope what he can gain through Iowa Central that he will be able to take back to his country.”

Pozhari is studying business at the college.

“I have found that business is the best way in my view and my experience to connect people,” Pozhari said. “We all have a shared interest and business is ultimately growing interest. Business is trying to find a common purpose and bonding people. It negates borders, it negates backgrounds, it only sees us as our interest.

“I want to use business and the business I will start to be able to connect to as many people as I can through as many backgrounds. So I can make their lives in any way I can, any shape or form.”

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Pozhari said the best part about the college has been the sense of community.

“I had a class with 60 people from 22 different countries and never felt more at home,” he said. “I have friends from all over. I have been able to come to the greatest country in the world that I have been in love with since I was a kid.”

Pozhari speaks six different languages: Albanian (native language), English, German, Spanish, Portuguese and Turkish.

“I have been speaking English since I was 6 1/2 years old,” he said. “I have loved languages ever since because it enabled me to connect to everyone. I remember a time where I was in a visit to another city and I met some soldiers from Turkey that were there as part of a NATO mission and I got to meet them. I got to learn about their family, their lives, and I spoke Turkish.”

He was about 13 at that time.

“It gives you a whole new perspective,” he said. “When you are speaking their language, you bond with them, because you give them mutual respect. Even through the use of English, the most international language there is, there is still that bond because you give mutual respect. You do something and they do the same. You can learn through each other and grow through each other. And in the future, they may look back and think I am the same as him.”

He’s living with three Iowa roommates on the main campus of Iowa Central.

Pozhari has enjoyed hearing their stories and sharing his.

“Through that, there is a mutual respect developed,” he said. “They have shared what they went through in their lives and normally everyone goes through something. Everybody grows through that. I have been fortunate to learn from their experiences and learn from their perspective what living here really means. Not the picture perfect image but what really living here means.”

As Pozhari reflects on his own past he said, “It’s something that made me — my scars and my experiences and the way I grew up. The people around me made me who I am. I’ve come to learn even though we have a lot of differences, as humans we are alike inside and that’s why I have such a drive to move on.”

He sees Fort Dodge as progressive.

“Fort Dodge is … the perfect representation of the picket fence, American dream sort of thing,” he said. “You go out and see the houses and they are picturesque, and the people are friendly. Just the nicest people. You can easily talk with them. You can bond with them. And you see hope going around.”

He added, “Construction and development and an overall aspiration for the future. It will take a lot of time to establish what everybody wants to do and what everybody wants for the future, but the important thing is that there is movement going on. People aren’t just procrastinating. They are moving every day and trying to get better and helping the community. I have seen that in the college, but I have also seen that in the townspeople. I have gotten to know them. They love this place just because it’s a great place to be.”

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Back home, Pozhari said he’s hearing positive news.

He communicates with his parents every day.

“They tell me it’s getting better,” he said. “I see signs it’s moving forward and that makes me feel hopeful because when you come here, you sort of feel guilty because you left all of those people that relied on you and that followed you. Now that I know they are established and are not off at the worst, I can be at peace, mostly.”

Pozhari said he will return home one day, but plans to finish his education in the United States.

“I am here to learn and become the person I want to become, so that eventually, even though I will go back to my home country and will help it,” he said. “I also want to serve the whole of humanity. To me it makes no difference if you are from South Africa or Denmark. Or if you are from India or from Brazil. You are still human. We are all bonded through that connection.”

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