High school student talks with CIA Director

Not many high school juniors get the opportunity to tour the nation’s capitol and speak with former CIA directors, however that is exactly the chance offered Cody White of Thompson Falls High School.

“I’m really excited about it,” White said. “We’re going to be all over the place.”

White will be in Washington, D.C. from Sept. 30 until Oct. 5 to participate in the 2008 National Youth Leadership Forum on National Security. White was nominated by his English teacher and cross-country coach, Andrew Gideon.

This won’t be White’s first time to Washington, D.C. He used to live in Manassas, Va. and traveled to Washington several different times.

He said he was nominated in the spring and found out this fall that he was accepted into the program.

“I got a letter about it in the spring saying I had been nominated,” he said. “I took a little while to show my mom and once she saw it she was definitely more interested in it than I was at the time,” he added with a laugh.

White said he is hoping this trip will help him pinpoint what he’d like to major in college, because he said as of right now he has no idea what he’d like to major in.

“I really can’t focus in on any specific thing and I’m hoping this trip will help me get a better idea of what I’d like to do,” he said.

White said he feels really honored and humbled to have been nominated by Gideon. He said that he still isn’t really sure what qualified him for the trip and he said that he has many classmates that he feels are just as qualified if not more so.

“There are a lot of people at this school who could’ve just as easily been nominated,” he said.

While in Washington, D.C. White will be meeting with former CIA Director George Tenet as well as touring the United States Secret Service headquarters. He said that he has a lot packed into his six days there and it is hard to really pick one place that will really stand out, or that he is particularly excited about.

“There’s just so much that I’m going to be doing,” he said. “But getting to visit the Naval Academy is definitely up there.”

White flew out to D.C. on Sept. 30 and he said he was looking forward to meeting kids from all across the country while he is there.

“It is just so cool to be from such a small town and get to be a part of this,” he said. “I’m excited to go and it was just awesome to be nominated to do this.”