By Hailie Casias and Mercedes Caldera-Perez
The Centennialight
From October 13-26, Centennial welcomed a group of German exchange students to attend school here in America as a Bulldog.
The exchange program was brought to Centennial 16 years ago, but has actually been around for 50 years.
“The way it works is that a group of German students comes here for 2-3 weeks, stay with host families and go to school with their American partners at Centennial,” said the current German teacher, Miss Sabine Moosbrugger who has experience with the program herself.
Moosburgger attended a host home in Illinois in 1986, where she watched Top Gun multiple times with her American GAPP partner when she was attending high school. The experience inspired her to do the same for her future students.
“The program is not the trip, the program is a true exchange. So, we have German students coming here and American students going there. It’s not just the students going on the trip having an experience but all the students at Centennial will get to meet people from another country. Teenagers are just like them, and then the same thing in Germany.”
The students in Germany start learning English in 5th grade as a part of their regular classes until 10th grade, but most of them take it until 12th grade. The students that have already been paired with their host families have connected from different variations on social media so it wouldn’t just be totally strangers when they first arrive.
One of the exchange students, Johanna Schmidt, commented on her experience of the two weeks. “The people here are really nice and friendly. I'm feeling really happy, and I've been able to form really nice friendships with nice people here.”
Her favorite classes that she was taking here were Pottery and Criminology. Her opinion on the lunches here was that the food was horrible, and way too sweet.
Despite not preferring the food, she stated, “My first lunch here and the first welcome party were really great, there were really nice people and it felt nice to be home somewhere.”
Schmidt also shared that she was initially nervous coming to Centennial because she would have to meet new people, but now said she would like to visit Pueblo again.
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