German exchange students ending month-long BW visit

By LENNY C. LEPOLA

News Assis­tant Man­ag­ing Editor

On March 21, five stu­dents arrived from Ger­many for a month-long stay with Big Wal­nut High School stu­dents and their fam­i­lies as part of The Friend­ship Con­nec­tion, Inc., an exchange pro­gram between high schools in the United States and Gym­nasien in Germany.

Big Wal­nut High School Ger­man lan­guage teacher Frau Geor­gia Craig said the stu­dents from Ger­many will visit Big Wal­nut through April 18; and that host stu­dents are the same age and gen­der and share sim­i­lar inter­ests as the vis­it­ing students.

Laura Hatwieger, who attends Friedrich-Schiller Gym­na­sium, is stay­ing with Saman­tha Godby and her fam­ily; Lena Nickel, a stu­dent at Vogels­bergschule Schot­ten, is stay­ing with Han­nah Seabrook and her fam­ily; Kim Man­nig, a Her­c­cler­schule Kas­sel stu­dent, is stay­ing with Sophie Erieau and fam­ily; Julie Bruesch, a stu­dent at Manen­schule Fulda, is stay­ing with Amanda Galindo and fam­ily; and Han­nah Gebert, who attends Wilhelm-Hoffmann Gym­na­sium, is stay­ing with Lind­sey Adams and her family.

“The Friend­ship Con­nec­tion is true to its name,” Frau Craig said. “Many of these student’s rela­tion­ships last for decades. When you live with a stu­dent you’re host­ing you really learn the value of another lan­guage and the value of our own; and you learn the value of another cul­ture and truly become con­nected with it.”

While not manda­tory, Big Wal­nut stu­dents have the option of vis­it­ing Ger­many over the sum­mer and stay­ing with the fam­i­lies of the stu­dents they hosted. Many take advan­tage of the oppor­tu­nity, and even return to Ger­many for vis­its in sub­se­quent years.

The Friend­ship Con­nec­tion was con­ceived and devel­oped by Ohio high school Ger­man teach­ers in coop­er­a­tion with Eng­lish teach­ers in Germany.

The Friend­ship Con­nec­tion goal is to pro­vide an inex­pen­sive, on-going exchange pro­gram which enables par­tic­i­pants to enhance their abil­ity to speak Ger­man and to develop a greater appre­ci­a­tion of the Ger­man cul­ture as well as long-lasting friend­ships with their Ger­man partners.

In the first 31 years, nearly 28,000 Ger­man and Amer­i­can stu­dents have par­tic­i­pated in the Friend­ship Con­nec­tion exchange program.

For addi­tional infor­ma­tion about The Friend­ship Con­nec­tion go to < friendshipconnection.org >.

Posted by Gary Henery on Apr 18 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.