By: Ishita Agrawal
Staff Writer

This is a poster welcoming the Northeim Students to WA.

There is a sense of excitement in the halls. The students taking German are ecstatic and are yearning for the time approaching to speed up. All through the halls, there are WA students talking about the German students.

At least that is so according to Michael Joyce, German teacher.

“They [The students] just love it,” says Joyce, referring to the German exchange students and the student body here at our own WA.

Back in 1981, Joyce wrote to an organization in New York to set up an exchange for Westford Academy with Germany. He felt as though an exchange is just what his classroom needed so that the students knew that when they learned about Germany and its culture, they saw that it is not just school, but a living reality.

The organization provided Joyce with two choices: Berlin, the capital of Germany and Northeim.

“Berlin seemed too cityish for Westford”, says Joyce.

Northeim was a place of which Joyce had never heard of. In fact, it was surrounded by towns that had the word “bad” in it, meaning bath. This told him that Northeim was a beautiful place with a “normal” German lifestyle. This is because the word “bad” says that the place is beautiful and has lakes.

At the same time, a man in Northeim, who had lived in Virginia had chosen WA to be their partner school. And in this way, WA got a sister school, which exchanged students.

The process to get into the exchange starts off with the interested student going through an interviewing process. From the interviews, the teachers decide which ones seem to be most interested and deserving. The student pays the fee of $3,000, which include air fare.

From there, the chosen students fill out an application, all of which are exchanged. The students in both countries read through the applications and pick three exchange students they think are a good match for them and their families.

WA is the school that hosts the exchange first, because of the way the school schedules work out. The German students here take the long journey across the Atlantic to Germany in the summer.

When they get there, the students are assigned and welcomed to their new homes for the next 6 weeks. The students go to school and become a member of the families they are now a part of.

No student has ever regretted going on the exchange, according to Joyce. When they go there, they love it! The fact that you can leave the school during lunch, having so much public transportation, the houses and the cities, and of course the food.

“The students really develop a strong bond with their host families and they make great friends at school and in the city”, says Joyce.

In fact, years later, some of them have been invited to weddings and family functions.

When the Germans visit WA, they go through the same procedure of being assigned one family here in Westford. They are introduced to all the attractions in this area, such as Witch’s Woods and New York.

The exchange students are helpful to German students here and non- German students. The students taking German at WA profit by getting to speak the language head-on and being face-to-face with German culture. They also introduce the Americans to different European ideas.

Joyce says that the most surprising thing that Germans encounter when they come here is seeing that we don’t eat at McDonalds every night.

The German students have only been here for a little bit of time, but they have already formed some opinions about WA.

“Unbelievably friendly” is how Joyce sees them.

The Germans feelings toward WA are much in line with Joyce’s comments. There are numerous differences between their school in Germany and WA. “There is so much technology here”, says Nora Meyer, exchange student from Germany.

Other exchange students also offered their opinions.

“ Teachers here have their own room, while back home, they switch for every classroom,” says Luisa Hennemann, another German exchange student.

Westford Academy may be different, but the Germans have a positive attitude toward their 3 week status as a WA student.

“ Westford Academy is ‘wicked’ awesome”, says Clarissa Gerhardy.