With their luggage, plane ticket, and passports in tow, 16 Sandy Creek High School students jetted off to Germany to embark on a three-week adventure. These students were a part of Sandy Creek’s German exchange program, which partners together an American and German high school to give students an opportunity to travel and gain new cultural perspectives and experiences.
The program kicked off earlier in the year when 16 high school German students and their two teachers flew to the United States where they experienced American culture first-hand by attending school at Sandy Creek, and going on various adventures to explore the nation’s customs and traditions.
Now it was Sandy Creek’s turn to embark on German culture.
For the first time this year, Sandy Creek partnered with Oberrhein-Gymnasium Weil am Rhein (OGW), a German high school located on the southwest corner of Germany where three nations are interwoven- France, Germany and Switzerland.
Accompanied by Sandy Creek’s German teacher William Bryan, students explored many German cities such as Freiburg, Basel and Kostanz. In Freiburg, students toured the Vauban Quarter, a place where residents strive for recyclable and low energy living.
Students also bonded with German host families and created life-long friendships, “I enjoyed seeing lasting bonds growing between the students,” Bryan says as he recounts a former student who stays in contact with her German exchange student from over 15 years go.
Not only did Sandy Creek students attend a German school, they were invited to participate in cultural presentations during class. Five groups of Sandy Creek students were asked to give German students an in-depth look into the authentic American culture; students discussed race relations in Georgia, American high schools, historical roots, American music and sports, and the Latino experience.
“The presentation topics were selected largely according to requests from our partner school, which was seeking authentic cultural information delivered from the American teenage perspective,” Bryan says.
Honored by their visit, OGW staff invited Sandy Creek students to serve as practice partners for 11th grade German students as they were preparing for their upcoming English language exams, and assist a group of fifth grade students who were beginning to learn English.
Without hesitation, every Sandy Creek student was willing and excited to help, “You could see the children’s excitement as they worked with their American big brothers and sisters,” Bryan says.
With memories to last a lifetime, students returned to the United States with new friends and new cultural perspectives.
