DSHS kicks off new German exchange program

Dripping Springs High School German teacher Jillian Bessemer accompanied eight of her students to Dortmund, Germany, for three weeks in June and July to kick off the school’s first GAPP (German American Partnership Program) exchange. DSHS will host 13 students from the Phoenix Gymnasium School, which is located in Hörde neighborhood of Dortmund for three weeks this fall.

GAPP is a short-term exchange program, which means that instead of just traveling to tourist sites, students stay with German host families and attend classes at the partner school. DSHS students were able to experience what the education system is like in Germany and took classes in art, Italian, religion, and physics. Students also visited Heidelberg, Cologne, Düsseldorf, Münster, and the Haus der Geschichte Museum in Bonn.

Ms. Bessemer shared the following about the trip: “My students got to stay with a family and attend school with a German student their age. Of course, their German improved ... in three weeks of immersion in Germany, they were exposed to roughly the same amount of immersion that they receive in one year in the classroom! By living in Germany, meeting students their age, and participating in regular life, my students will be better able to adapt and thrive in new situations and new cultures--be that countries or communities.”