Anand Shah ‘25

NEWS EDITOR

From Oct. 22 to Nov. 2, students from the Otto Hahn Gymnasium High School in Göttingen, Germany, recently visited Unionville as part of the German-American Partnership Program, or GAPP. 

The Otto Hahn students were participating in an exchange program with Unionville, which has been conducted for eleven years before the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic. During the pandemic, the exchange was conducted virtually. Unionville students visited Germany from June 19 to July 5th, where they spent 10 days in Göttingen and stayed in Munich and Heidelberg as well. The students from Germany spent three nights in New York City before arriving at Pennsylvania.

Gymnasium teachers Mrs. Steinhoff and Mrs. Alberding noted that the program’s structure has remained “constant” in the years the exchange program has operated, allowing students to “have a similar experience every year.” Unionville High School German teacher Barbara Parris noted that this year “was the first year that the program could run unimpacted by the pandemic.” 

During the exchange, Otto Hahn students participated in different intramural activities, such as taking part in classes and attending various sporting events and competitions, while also exploring Chester County and the surrounding area. One student described “the incredible experience that was watching the marching band compete in the national competition,” and another student described “how exciting it was to visit Washington D.C.”

However, the exchange students said that they learned most about “the culture of the United States.” As Steinhoff stated, “The students often have a very different mental picture of the United States, and the beauty of the program is that it allows for the [exchange students] to learn about similarities and differences between German [culture] and those of other countries.” The students also agreed with the program’s impacts, as they noted the various “culture shocks” they experienced when they came to the United States, such as the “friendliness of the people” and the “atmosphere of individual towns.” Despite these shocks, the students took away from the program that “the US and Germany have a lot of similarities,” as stated by a student. That student said, “Going into the exchange, [he] anticipated the US to be completely different from Germany, with almost nothing being the same. By participating in the exchange, [he] was able to observe the many similarities between the two countries.” 

The students from Germany also observed differences between the school systems in the United States and in Germany. One student noted, “how much bigger the high school was in comparison to Otto Hahn.” Additionally, students were surprised by the size and “individual nature of each classroom,” said one student, with another noting how they were “stunned” by the “friendliness between students and teachers, because in Germany, there is a clear power dynamic between students and teachers.”

Similar sentiments were echoed by Unionville juniors Mathias Jackson and Duke Zhuang, who participated in the exchange program and visited Germany. Zhuang said, “The trip exposed me to the diversity of German culture and how the US and Germany are more similar than I realized.” Jackson noted that “in Germany, I realized that there were many different people from many different backgrounds, and that much like [the US’s] culture, the beauty of Germany lies in the individual cultures of its different people.”

According to Alberding, exchange students from previous exchanges “continue to stay in touch with each other” years after the trip. Alberding said, “The students aren’t just learning about the US and how to survive outside of Germany; they are learning about how different the world is and how they can be better global citizens in the changing world.”