This spring, 12 students and 2 teachers came to WAHS from Berlin, Germany to experience American culture. The teachers came over to supervise the students, and set up projects for them to get exposure to American culture. The students and staff arrived in the country on March 9, and came to school on March 11. They stayed at WAHS for two weeks, and then they went up to Washington DC for 4 days before returning back to Germany. This exchange is a part of the German American Partnership Program, or GAPP for short. GAPP has been going on since the 1970s, and is a way for both American and German students to experience the other countries’ culture through visiting and experiencing the foreign country.
The program here was started by Reimer Brodersen 25 years ago, and was then taken up by Brooke Pearson, the German teacher, in 2019 when Broderson left. Unfortunately, then the pandemic hit, and GAPP came to halt until this year, when the exchange program started back up for the first time in four years.
Pearson was excited for the program to start back up, since she did an exchange program to Germany back when she was in high school. “To me, it was such a life changing experience, (…) just really getting to know another culture, and I feel like it’s so important for students to broaden their mindset and their meanings,” said Pearson.
For every year that there is an exchange, there is a theme that the program centers around to guide which aspects of the culture the students will mostly experience on their trip. This year’s theme was art, which is why the two teachers who came to Western are English and Art teachers. The teachers from Germany set up projects for their students based around art in the United States, like going to museums to see American art.
As part of the program, students were required to stay in their host country for at least 14 days. “A lot of programs will spend an extra few days doing some sort of other excursion, depending on budgets,” says Pearson.
Henry Simmons, a freshman, hosted one of the German students this spring. The student, a junior, lived with Simmons and his family for seventeen days. Simmons got involved in the program through Pearson, because he and his sister both take German. He was most interested in the opportunity to learn more about German culture and the differences between the United States and Germany. “ It’s kind of interesting to find out what the stuff that they don’t have in Germany that we have here,” said Simmons.
Simmons’ daily routine did not change much, he said, as they went to school and fit into the daily routine of him and his family.
Hannah Lawall, an 11th grade German exchange student, decided to do the exchange program because she wanted to try something new, and always thought that the U.S. was a very interesting country. Lawall loved her time here at Western, and enjoyed the moderness of the school compared to her school in Germany. “A lot of German schools are really underfunded,[…] we have a lot of schools that are in desperate need of renovation, and so it’s just really, really hard sometimes,” she said. Lawall also greatly enjoyed the local sporting events here, because in Germany, school sports are not a thing. “A lot of people who are really good at sports all play in private clubs in their free time. It’s not a big part of your life, it’s a separate thing. You just go to school for education,” she said.
One of the most shocking parts about the U.S. for Lawall was how laid back the teachers are here compared to Germany. In Germany, the teachers are extremely strict, and won’t let the students take a sip of water without asking permission first. She also found the workload here to be a lot easier than hers’ in Germany. “The common attitude for 11th and 12th grade is that, if it’s necessary, you have to give up your personal life so you do well in school, because it’s the most important two or three years in your life.” Lawall was also shocked about the freedom of guns in the United States, and how easy it is to get a hold of one. “ You can buy guns at Walmart, that’s kind of crazy to me.”
Lawall most looked forward to riding a typical school bus, as she feels it is an American staple. “A really American school bus you always see in high school movies, I think it’s just so cool,” said Lawall.
