Artur Samarin moved to the U.S. when he was a sophomore at his local university in the south of Ukraine. He dreamed of limitless opportunities in America, and he had interviewed for a slot in an American exchange program that permitted foreign university students to work summer jobs in the U.S. Samarin, who wanted to work for NASA someday, was an extraordinary student and even though his English was not great, he landed a fast food job in south central Pennsylvania for three months.
But America was more expensive than he thought, and Harrisburg was different than what he had dreamed. He had expected to be able to make some money and enroll in an American college or university; he didn’t realize how much it cost to attend college in the States. He befriended a childless couple in his apartment building and confided in them that the exchange program was just a frustrating tease of American life. In order to help Samarin out, Stephayne McClure-Potts and Michael Potts offered to legally adopt Samarin, but under the condition that he lie and claim his birthdate was five years later than it actually was. He could then enroll in public school as the couple’s dependent, allowing the pair to receive a small Social Security along with accompanying tax benefits, GQ writes. (The couple is now disputing their alleged motivations.) Samarin agreed, and gave the couple the $2,000 he’d saved that summer to help with the paperwork. By September, he was ready for his first day at Harrisburg High.
At first, everything went well. He slipped into the fabric of the school easily, getting good grades, winning awards, and making friends. He started extra classwork at a university. But eventually the arrangement frayed, Samarin ran away, and his erstwhile parents turned him in.
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