Schools
A Warm Welcome, Unique Opportunity for German Exchange Students
North Kingstown High School students welcomed their German counterparts to the U.S. in a one-of-a-kind exchange program Friday morning.
Students and faculty at North Kingstown High School celebrated the arrival of 16 German exchange students and their two chaperones on Friday morning, although the weather may not have joined in on the welcome. The exchange is the product of a partnership between NKHS and Burgau Gymnasium in Düren, Germany. The group arrived to Rhode Island late Thursday night, but displayed no noticeable signs of jet lag.
“The adrenaline is pulsing through my veins so everything is just fine,” said German student Katia Jaranska. “I feel very, very fine, very comfortable with my host family, [received] a very warm welcome, and I’m absolutely happy to be here.”
Friday’s informal ceremony began with the NKHS chorus program offering their gift of song and continued with a presentation of gifts from the visiting students and chaperones to Principal Dr. Thomas Kenworthy. Afterwards, the group retired to the cafeteria chat over refreshments as North Kingstown students presented their exchange partners with backpacks and other welcome gifts donated by Collette Vacations, Dr. Roger Turkel and Mary Shalkowski designs, among others.
Find out what's happening in North Kingstownwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Each German student is staying with the family of their exchange partner for a three-week period. In June, NKHS students participating in the program will travel to Düren, Germany to spend three weeks as an exchange student themselves. While in the U.S., the German students have much to look forward to. They’ll attend the junior prom at Rhodes on the Pawtuxet on Saturday Apr. 2, and will also travel to Boston and New York. Before returning to their homeland, the German students will be recognized at the State House by Governor Lincoln Chafee.
“There are no other such partnerships in Rhode Island,” said Ruthann (also known as ‘Frau’) Baker, German language teacher and coordinator of the exchange at NKHS. “This is our fourth exchange in this partnership and it is wicked cool, life changing even.”
Find out what's happening in North Kingstownwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
“Borders are lines on the map but they don’t exist in the head,” said Burgau chaperone Ulrich Ehrhardt. “We’re all just people. It’s a question of how you see things. It’s especially great [for the students] to get down to the basics and realize ‘I go to school, you go to school. You have these problems when you fall in love, I have these problems when I fall in love.’ They have many things in common.”
“Just try and take in the culture when you’re here because you don’t know if you’re going to get the opportunity again,” advised NKHS Senior Katie Matley.
Matley traveled to Germany with the exchange partnership last year and had nothing but good things to say of the program.
“It was really fun. It was crazy to realize once we were driving around that I was actually in a different country and very far from home. It’s really cool to see how they dress differently, and do everything differently,” said Matley.
When asked of her favorite aspect of the program, Matley replied, “Just being able to go. A lot of people don’t get to do something like that.”
As the students get settled in with their host families, participants on both sides are sure to catch a glimpse of the world from a different angle. Talking with NK students participating in the program, one gets the impression things are off to a great start.
“It’s just like having a sister,” NK student Dominique Hildebrand explained of her family’s guest.
“I’ll spend this weekend in New Hampshire with my host family,” said Burgau student Theres Knuth.
Both American and German students in the partnership have much to look forward to over the coming weeks and months.
“I’m really excited about going to New York, but just also the everyday life,” explained Katia Jaranska. “I’m very interested to see how everything goes on here.”
“I’m looking forward to meeting my host family and see what life is like. I’m also really excited to learn English,” offered Burgau student Julie Monjean.
Amidst all of the excitement, and despite having been in country for less than 24 hours, the partnership’s German exchange students were quick to discuss cultural differences they’d already noticed.
“The school here is so modern,” offered Knuth. “It’s not at all like that at home. Here you have classes in things like film and photography, and we don’t in Germany. Americans also all have the American flag in their yard, that doesn’t happen with the German flag in Germany. And, everybody drives big cars here.”
“The houses are very spaced out, they’re very lonesome,” said Jaranski. “In Germany where I live they’re right next to each other. I have not seen so much of the landscape yet, but I hope I will."
Jaranski was quick to crack a joke about an American culinary stereotype she noted. “We say in Germany that Americans eat a lot of doughnuts. That’s right! Yesterday when the exchange partners picked us up at the airport, they all had boxes of Dunkin’ Donuts.”
Despite whatever differences what exist, Ehrhardt as a chaperone does not see them to be an aspect that dominates the students’ memory of the exchange experience.
“They see the lives of different people and see that although distances might be very great, and they are traveling ten hours by plane, their lives are not much different. They have a lot in common,” he said. Ehrhardt also feels it is invaluable for the students to be living the daily life in their respective exchanges, and not acting as tourists merely seeing sights.
Jaranski aspires to a corollary goal. Looking forward to hosting her American counterparts, she detailed, “I’m excited to show them how Germany works. I think a lot of them expect Germany to be like a little village, but we have also a very different landscape and we’ll bring them to other countries because the borders are very near. I hope to break their stereotypes down a bit.”
Jaranski’s comments are sure to strike a chord with Ehrhardt, as this year is bittersweet in being his last participating in the partnership after 29 years of coordinating exchanges. His work will be taken over by Burgau chaperone Julia Kreutzer, chaperoning her first exchange this year.
“It’s great to have someone to take the program over. Sometimes you get someone to organize and coordinate a partnership like this, and after they leave, the program dies. I’m so grateful for Julia and so happy it will continue.”
