Lasting bond: German exchange student program at D-Y high school provides valuable lessons
SOUTH YARMOUTH — Auf Wiedersehen.
On Thursday morning, 16 German high school students met with their American counterparts for the last time at Dennis-Yarmouth High School, to say farewell and to celebrate the success of their exchange program.
On Oct. 11, students from the Elisabeth Langgässer Gymnasium in Alzey, Germany, a town southeast of Frankfurt, visited Cape Cod as part of the exchange program with the German Club of D-Y High School. Back in April, 18 American students visited the town of Alzey for 10 days.
“It is one thing to learn the German language in class, know the basics of the grammar and everything, but it was completely another experience to actually go to Germany and experience everything in person,” said Molly Gedutis, a senior at D-Y High School.
The German student group visited Plimoth Patuxet Museums, went on a day trip to Cape Cod National Seashore and visited Provincetown during their stay.
As part of the program, the students conducted a workshop with sixth- and seventh-grade students who are learning German at the D-Y Middle School.
The German exchange program is the only exchange program offered at D-Y at present. American students who went to Germany stayed with host families in Alzey and when the German students came to Cape Cod, they stayed with Cape families.
Dawn Colton-Mund, a retired German teacher at Dennis-Yarmouth High School, previously ran the program, which has been around for the last 15 years. According to Colton-Mund, the biggest challenge is finding host families in both Germany and Cape Cod.
Colton-Mund used to live in Alzey and taught at the Elisabeth Langgässer Gymnasium, so it was easy to set up the program. Rebecca Horn, the current German teacher at D-Y, took over the program.
"Since the pandemic, this is the first exchange program on the Cape that is operating overseas again," said Colton-Mund.
“To see the program continuing to go on makes me really happy,” said Colton-Mund. “This year’s program was a great success. I’m confident this will continue and I’m happy that it has a new overseer now.”
Learning and experiencing different cultures at D-Y
For both German and American students, the program has been an invaluable experience.
“We have separate school systems, but here everybody has one school where everyone from different social backgrounds comes together,” said Philipp Petersohn, a German student. “The schools here have an integrated system which is great, even students who have learning disorders work together with others and thrive.”
“Here, schools have so many different clubs and other sports activities. Back home we usually have different activities outside of school,” said Lena Lutze, another German student. “The students here do all these in the school, and I think that’s a great system.”
The exchange program focuses heavily on student interaction and not just on learning a different language or culture. The focus is on lived experiences.
“The program is about meeting people, not just traveling around,” said Philippe Hillenbrand, the German teacher from Alzey who chaperoned the students. “The United States has great places where you can go, but actually meeting people from different nations, getting in touch with them and living their lives with them is what makes this program a rich experience.”
According to D-Y senior Alex Finn, Germans are more laid back and relaxed, compared to Americans who always seem on the move.
German students were taken aback by Americans who got their coffees to go and eat while driving in the car.
“Germans like to sit at their cafes while getting a coffee, chat and do other stuff instead of getting it to go,” said Finn.
The bigness of the United States was startling to some.
"Most of the cities have big streets, huge buildings, efficient parking space and you can really see the different types of development the cities have compared to Europe,” said Joel Ullrich.
D-Y student Finn liked what he saw in Europe.
"The architecture in Germany was awesome and it was great to see all the old buildings, some of them were even older than our country," Finn said.
Forming lifelong friendships across nations
Club supervisor Horn said the students forged strong ties.
"I can see the bonding that happened between all of them," she said.
German student Fenya Diehl shared her first-hand experience with American culinary practices.
“A lot of people eat fast food here but back home we eat a lot of bread, we have a lot of bakeries and we always have a full set of meals during each time of the day,” said Diehl. “What I also found interesting is that Americans like to snack a lot and we don’t have that; we have three full meals a day.”
D-Y student Niamh Ryan said America is not just about big buildings.
“We went into the grocery store and one of the German students was surprised to see such big portions of food, which they are not familiar with,” said Ryan. “They were even shocked by the pizza size here!”
D-Y senior Gedutis really connected with her exchange partner.
"We got so close and we are practically sisters at this point," she said. "After learning so much about each other, I feel like even though we are separated by an ocean and live thousands of miles apart, we are all the same at the core, going through the same situations.”
Program supervisor Horn said she enjoyed the entire experience.
“I’m from Germany and so it is very dear to my heart to be able to show my students the culture that I'm from, it is extra special for me,” she said.
Rasheek Tabassum Mujib writes about health care and education. Reach her at rmujib@capecodonline.com.
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This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Dennis-Yarmouth high school German exchange program connects nations
