For three decades, a school in Germany has swapped students with this Topeka high school

Of all the things to notice, and of all the things to remark on, it has been the doors of the U.S. that have most surprised Kilian Burk.

Burk, a junior from Lahntalschule Biedenkopf high school in the Marburg region of Germany, and several other juniors from the school are here in Topeka as part of a decades-long exchange program with Seaman High School’s German program.

“It has been great,” Burk said. “First, it was really hot — hotter in the fall than it is in Germany. But I’ve liked it a lot. I like the people here. I like the things you have here.”

For 30 years, Seaman High has exchanged students with Marburg school

SeaMapp, as the Seaman Marburg Partnership Program between the schools is called, started in 1992, when Seaman High’s first German teacher reached out to a former colleague in Marburg to see about having students from their schools visit each other.

The schools have continued that tradition every other year since, with the exception of 2021, in light of the pandemic, said Amy Calhoun, who is Seaman’s third German teacher. A delegation of German students visits the U.S. in the fall every other year, and a contingent of Seaman students travels to Germany the summer after.

Marco Otto, who was a student when he first came to visit Kansas in 1994, is now an assistant principal at Lahntalschule Lahnau, in charge of the school’s exchange program and some language classes.

Over the years, he and Calhoun have developed a close friendship, he said.

“It’s just so nice to meet the people here,” he said. “I have friends here all over America, but (Kansas) is my home state now. I still stay with the same host family. When people ask me why we go to Kansas, since there’s ‘nothing in Kansas,’ I tell them, ‘It’s the people.’

“It’s the people that matter, and here in this state, they’re so warm-hearted and friendly, and that’s why we love coming here.”

It's the little things that make Seaman student exchange visit memorable

Since they arrived a week and a half ago, the German students have stayed at the homes of host families from Seaman’s German language program, learning the ins-and-outs of daily life.

But they’ve also gotten to visit various landmarks and attractions around the area, such as the Eisenhower Museum and the Statehouse, which included a brief conversation with Gov. Laura Kelly.

Last Friday, they participated in some of the most quintessential American traditions of high school football, homecoming and the school dance.

“The point is to show the similarities between our cultures, learn the language and just raise awareness of the good things in both places,” Calhoun said.

For a lot of the German students, the exposure to nonstop English is invaluable, especially since English is a required class at their school, Otto said. It’s also typically the first time they’ve made this significant of a trip away from their homes.

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“They also learn a lot of the cultural differences, and they really learn that the U.S. is not at all like what it seems to be on German TV,” the assistant principal said. “High schoolers are very different from what they’re like on TV. For example, they learn that that notion of American kids not having any freedom — that’s not true either. Yes, it’s different, but they have a lot of possibilities here.”

Even Seaman High students who don’t take German get to interact with and learn from the foreign students, since they go to various classes and give presentations about their lives in Germany.

It’s the little things that stick out most as cultural differences, said Burk the junior student. Door handles aren’t as sensitive in the U.S. Refrigerators are way bigger.

But it’s the people that stick out.

“I’ll definitely remember the people,” Burk said. “I’ve not met a single rude person so far. Maybe that’s just luck, but I’ll definitely remember this trip and the school.”

Rafael Garcia is an education reporter for the Topeka Capital-Journal. He can be reached at rgarcia@cjonline.com or by phone at ‪785-289-5325. Follow him on Twitter at @byRafaelGarcia.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Seaman High hosts students from Lahntalschule in Germany