German Exchange Student Coming to Manchester

Mitchell Ernst, freshman at Manchester High School, and his family will very shortly be hosting a German student for three weeks. This year, MHS has joined up with Jackson High School to participate in the German American Partnership Program (GAPP.)

On Wednesday, the 7th of October, a 16-year-old German student named Halvard will be arriving in Manchester to stay with Mitchell and his family. Halvard will come to America with 19 other students, and two teachers. He is the only one of the students who will be staying in Manchester; the rest will be staying with families in Jackson. Halvard and his 19 fellow students are all from a small Northern German town called Varel, near the North Sea.

While here, Halvard and the other students will visit a buffalo farm, a local orchard, and may have a chance to ride around the track at Michigan International Speedway. The students will tour the campus of the University of Michigan, and even get to travel as far as Chicago, where they will shop on the Miracle Mile. The German students will be teaching a lesson in the German language to children at Klager Elementary. And of course, they will be staying with host families, sharing meals and conversations, and discovering all that we have in common.

This is Mitchell’s second year taking German, and he has wanted to travel to Germany for a long time. After his family hosts Halvard, he may get the same chance, as plans are being made for Manchester students to join the Jackson students in traveling to Germany and staying with families there in 2017. While this is the first year MHS has participated, Jackson High has been involved in GAPP since the 1980s, with Jackson students traveling to Germany since 1987. Past visits have been to Berlin, Hamburg, and even The Netherlands where students have experienced the Rhein River, castles and mountains, cities and small towns.

Mitchell's mother, Laurie Crosheck noted, "For Mitchell to be able to travel to Germany, while in high school, is truly an amazing opportunity! We would like to see the German Exchange Program continue to grow in Manchester!"

Wendy Adams, current German Teacher at Jackson High, has been a GAPP coordinator since she started teaching at Jackson Public schools in 1991. Manchester's German teacher, Jamie Woodring, who is in her first year of teaching at MHS, was a part of the Jackson exchange in 2011. Frau Woodring has brought GAPP to Manchester, and hopes that local interest will drive expanded student participation in the program.

Frau Woodring notes: “We have had students who continue to have strong ties to their host families. It is like a second home to them. Many come back to visit in subsequent years, or the American family goes to Germany. It is a fabulous opportunity to make an international friend. It makes us all better suited to a global society and helps us understand other cultures in a real way instead of on television or history reports.”

German students and American students from Jackson who traveled this summer. Photo courtesy of Jamie Woodring.

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by Fritz Swanson

Fritz Swanson has written for The Believer, the Christian Science Monitor, Print Magazine, McSweeney's, Esopus, LSA Magazine, and The Mid-American Review. He serves as a trustee on the Manchester District Library Board. He's the designer and publisher of The Manchester Mirror.

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