Souhegan H.S. Celebrates 10 Years of German Exchange Program

Souhegan High School and Mascenic Regional High School celebrated the 10-year anniversary of their German Exchange Program in October. The New Hampshire high schools have partnered with three high schools in Mannheim, Germany for the past decade and each year the program gets better and better! This year Nashua South High School joined in this culturally rich opportunity for host families in the three school districts. 

The annual itinerary is planned and coordinated through Carousel Student Tours in partnership with teachers at each host school. Kim Vitchkoski, Kalynda Beal and Jayne Wing are the three teacher coordinators from Souhegan, Mascenic and Nashua South High School, respectively. Each year German students visit New Hampshire for two and a half weeks in October, during the peak of the fall leaf 
season. While in the States this year, the group of 39 German exchange students spent several days shadowing their American host students in classes, and spent the balance of their time studying American history through a variety of trips and tours including excursions to Boston, Fenway Park, Harvard University, Plymouth Plantation, Whale Watching in Gloucester, Mass., and two days in New York City.

As global as our world today is, international exchanges among high school students serve as a critical building block to cultural diversity. American students from the three high schools will reciprocate with a 12-day visit to Mannheim in mid-April which will conclude with two days touring Paris.

According to Kim Vitchkoski, “Each year when we ask students what the best part of the trip was, they always tell us that it was the time they spent with their host families. The farewells are always the hardest part – there are always a lot of hugs and tears. But this exchange plants the seeds to lifelong friendships across the Atlantic.”

– Submitted by Jeanne Sturges