25 Jahre/25 Years: Prep's German Exchange

by Jim DeAngelo, '85

For over 25 years, Prep’s German Exchange program has given students the opportunity to experience not just a language but a culture, not just an academic subject but a way of life. As Prep’s oldest student exchange program looks ahead to the next 25 years, Prep’s principal – a participant in the very first exchange in 1985 – reflects on that first experience with Clara-Fey- Gymnasium, and what’s next.

This year, Prep celebrates the silver anniversary of its German Exchange program with Clara-Fey-Gymnasium. Since its inception in 1985, some 200 Prep students have had the opportunity to participate. The model is simple and repeats itself every other year: Prep students host a group of German students and teachers in their homes for a couple of weeks in the spring, with a return visit to Germany in the summer. This spring, Prep welcomed the 14th group of Clara-Fey students taking part in the 2011 exchange between our two schools.

In the early months of 1985, first-year history and German teacher, Bill Donahue, floated the idea of a student exchange with the school administration. After receiving the initial go-ahead, Donahue quickly went about finding an appropriate partner school with which to begin an exchange. As luck would have it, Clara-Fey-Gymnasium, a

For some of the Prep kids, this was their first encounter with rural culture.

college-prep high school in what was then West Germany, was also looking to initiate an exchange. He remembers, “The big part was getting the Prep to approve a student exchange with a girls’ school— remember, that is the way the Clara-Fey was then thought of, basically as a girls’ school that had just started accepting some boys. I frankly didn’t think it was very likely, but was delighted to hear that [thenpresident] Joe Parkes, S.J., ‘62 had approved. This was a lifetime ago, when a mix-gender exchange of this length – with homestays – was not something to be taken for granted.”

At first glance, one could think that the differences between both of our schools would prove just too great to engender the long-term institutional relationship that has developed over the years. As Donahue notes, Clara-Fey was essentially an all-girls’ school about half the size of Prep with a very small number of boys in the upper grades. Also, the school was located in the far western reaches of the country, the Eifel region, where, it seemed, the number of cows grazing on the hills far exceeded the number of inhabitants

in Schleiden and the surrounding towns with names like Gemünd, Blankenheim, Hellenthal and Oberreifferscheid. “For some of the Prep kids, this was their first encounter with rural culture,” recalls Bill Donohue. “Some lived with families on farms, getting up at 4:45 a.m. to do the chores before coming to school. It was new for me too: I had never seen this side of Germany before.” As plans for the first German exchange were being finalized, I was a second semester senior, who, admittedly, was a little skeptical that anyone – much less a group of Europeans – would want to spend time in Jersey City. As a student in Donahue’s political science class, every so often I would overhear him speaking with students from

his German classes, practicing some key phrases in German for the arrival of our guests. As for my own foreign language experience to that point – suffice it to say that I was a “recovering” student of French who found the prospect of ever speaking a foreign language fluently a lost cause given my misexperiences in sophomore and junior years.

As the date of our guests’ arrival drew near, it was difficult not to share in the enthusiasm and pride that Donahue exuded whenever he spoke of the importance of such an exchange. In the mid-1980s,

the Cold War was the dominant geopolitical factor at work in the world, and our class spent a good amount of time learning about Germany’s experience of the post-war era. I was mesmerized by the division of a country and more so by the division of the city of Berlin into east and west, communist and capitalist. The fact that Donahue had actually studied in Berlin and had spent time in East Germany – and survived! – awakened in me a desire to learn more.

The first exchange group to visit Prep consisted of 11 students (nine girls and two boys) and two teachers, Ms. Gertrud Gehrt, an English teacher at Clara-Fey, and her husband Leo, a teacher at another high school. From the first moment, I was one of those hangerson – always willing to “help out” in any way that I could by taking part in various exchange activities such as a Broadway play or a trip the observation deck of the World Trade Center. I’m sure that I was a curiosity for the Germans – I didn’t speak a word of German

I jumped at the opportunity to return to Prep as a German teacher.

(or French for that matter!) and wasn’t hosting a student. Plus, unlike most other Americans they encountered, I was much less interested in learning about the Nazi era than their impressions of East Germany, which, it turned out, was as “foreign” to them as it was to us.

My first and most lasting impression of my first contact with our guests from Clara-Fey was how well they all could speak English. Over the time they were here, I tried to learn a few words of German, but was embarrassed by my own inability to speak a foreign language. Still, those cold and gray early spring days of March 1985 are among the most cherished of my high school memories.

After they returned to Germany, I asked Donahue if it were possible for me to join in the second part of the exchange, the three-week stay in Germany at the end of that summer. After some negotiation with Frau Gehrt, I was set up with a host family and spent the summer trying to memorize words out of a German vocabulary book. Despite my limitations, I gave it my all while in Germany that summer, whether it was dealing with East German border guards on the train trip from Frankfurt to Berlin or negotiating the everyday details of being a houseguest with my host family. I finished up that trip with a heightened understanding of what I didn’t know, but I started Boston College that fall determined to change that.

I spent junior year studying abroad at the university in Freiburg and visited my Clara-Fey friends, this time, however, able to string together (mostly) coherent sentences and thoughts. I was grateful to them for their patience just a couple of years before and for their help in encouraging me to learn German and study German history.

German as carrying on the “tradition” of the German exchange, which had taken place twice more since 1985. Going back to Schleiden in 1991 as the teacher in charge was an awesome feeling

for me. I was given the chance to continue what Donahue had started. As a teacher of German myself, I finally understood what was at the base of Bill’s motivation for starting the exchange. He says, “The main thing about the exchange – and the reason I direct Duke’s exchange program in Berlin now – is what every language teacher knows: it is only worth all the pain of conjugating, case endings, and verb placement, if kids know they have a chance to actually use German in some way. The Exchange gave them that not only in the short run, but for many this has been a lifelong connection to German families.” Prep’s current German teacher, Ryan Grusenski, ’03, concurs. He, too, knows the exchange from both sides as both a student participant and director. He remembers, “Experiencing Germany at such an impressionable age changed how I perceived the language that I was learning. It was no longer words in my head, but a way to communicate with people and with a place that I love. I think the reason why I love bringing students to Germany is because the student exchange experience still takes my breath away, the same way it did when I was the student. Living in someone’s home is uncomfortable to think about, trying to communicate in what is not your mother tongue can be unbearable when you know that you are bound make mistakes.”

Ryan Grusenski, '03 and classmate Edward Janssen during the 2001 exchange

The German Exchange in and of itself is a great act of trust for everyone involved. The openness and maturity needed to host a student from another country is not something that comes naturally. Parents on both sides of the Exchange have encouraged their sons and daughters (and sometimes picked up the slack) to make every exchange a mutually exciting, important and fun experience for all participants – both students and adults. Helmut Schuster, principal of Clara-Fey, says the same is true in Germany: “I am thankful to the parents who throughout the years have taken care of their American guests. Through this school program, we also allow our exchange students the opportunity to get authentic impressions of different schools, as well as different cultures. The central part of every exchange, however, has been the experience of being a member of a host family.” A Clara-Fey student adds, “the first thing I noticed was the hospitality of the American students and their families. The people I met were always very friendly and open and I

was immediately integrated into my host family – and even those of some of the neighbors!” When I took part in that first exchange in the mid-1980s, the cultural gaps that existed between us Americans and our West German friends were quite palpable – popular music, fashion and political opinions. With each successive exchange since then, I have noticed how those differences have pretty much disappeared. The effects of globalization and electronic communication have in so many ways flattened our world, to borrow a phrase from New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman. Helmut Schuster echoes this thought: “In the last 25 years we have gotten used to think ever more globally. We have realized that our main problems such as environmental protection, global warming, climate change, energy conservation as well as the banking and financial crises can only be solved on a global level.”

At the same time, it is no less exciting for a Prep student to take part in the Exchange. Senior Conor Kearns is excited to take part in the exchange for a second time this year. One of the highlights from 2009 was visiting Berlin. He says, “It was such an interesting place to be. It’s a city saturated with history.” His older brother, Kevin, ’00, also participated in the exchange and returned during and after college to Germany with the Fulbright program. Conor remembers his host family “had to make accommodations for [his] lack of advanced German. This time, I’m excited to see how I will do with the German I have learned since then.” He also feels a “bit like an ambassador,” since he will host Alina Gerhards, daughter of one of the participating Clara-Fey teachers. Over the past quarter century, some 200 Prep students have taken part in the German Exchange and more than a few have returned to visit their host families, study at a German university or been awarded Fulbright fellowships and scholarships. George Griffin, ’01, a two-time exchange participant in 1999 and 2001, this year is actually teaching at a German high school not too far from Schleiden – quite an accomplishment given highly restrictive and competitive regulations governing work visas in the European Union. He says, “Taking part in the exchange has had a lasting impact on my life. I will never forget the feeling of excitement that I had when we first arrived in Germany and I had the chance to be immersed in a new culture for the first time. Since then, my study of German has led me on a journey that has provided me with the opportunity to live and teach in several countries and deepen my understanding not only of German culture but also of my own.”

Many things have changed both in Germany and the United States since that first exchange. The Berlin Wall, the defining characteristic of a divided postwar Germany, collapsed in 1989 and the two German states have united and remain a major player at the heart of European politics. The end of the Cold War has also had its effect on the U.S. and its image in the world. Prep and Clara-Fey have similarly changed in big ways and small as well. The teachers who originally planned and executed the exchange between our two schools have moved on – Gertrud and Leo Gehrt to retirement and Bill Donahue is now a professor and chairperson of the German Department at Duke University. Both schools have also seen a growth in enrollment and exciting new building projects in Jersey City and Schleiden point toward an exciting future.

Over the years that I was directly responsible for the exchange from 1991-2007, I was very lucky to work with colleagues who helped out immensely to ensure the success of each exchange both here and abroad: Peter Froehlich, ’85, former Prep math teacher; Marie Curry, former Prep history teacher; and Jack Raslowsky, ‘79, former Prep principal. On the German side, there have been many more teachers who have collaborated with me in addition Gertrud and Leo Gehrt: among them, Roswitha Schütt-Gerhards and Heike Jäckel, who returned this year with the 14th Clara-Fey group to visit Prep. On our end, Ryan Grusenski, ’03, an exchange ’01 alumnus himself, directed the exchange for the second time. Roswitha, known to her Prep colleagues as Rosie, says interest in the exchange at Clara-Fey remains high: “Long before the preparations for the next exchange starts, students come and ask when the ‘ticket booth’ opens and what the requirements are.”

Looking back over the past quarter century of the exchange, it’s quite easy to see how the exchange has not just survived but also thrived through the many changes and challenges: openness to growth, one of the hallmarks of a Jesuit education. In the mid- 1980s, both Prep and Clara-Fey were blessed with visionary leaders in Joe Parkes, S.J., Prep’s president at the time, and Volker Schwinn, Clara-Fey’s principal, who recognized the potential value of an exchange between our two schools and nurtured the ongoing institutional relationship. Of equal importance is the continuing openness of both Prep and Clara-Fey students and their parents who have shared their homes and their hearts with students from another place with the hope that something good and valuable would come of it. As Ryan Grusenski says, “The tears, the speeches, the real meaning behind how special and important this event, this relationship is, cannot be quantified. I am blessed to be able to provide it to other students, maybe change a life, and offer a new window and new perspective through which to view the world. It is amazing to see the love that our schools share every two years in an exchange of stories and homes and cultures. It is impressive, and that feeling is what keeps me coming back.” Personally, I have been privileged to take part in all but one exchange between Prep and Clara-Fey, and have come away from every one energized and optimistic for the future of our two schools and our world.

In the end, the personal experiences on a human level keep the exchange between our two schools going. Rosie put it this way: “A different approach to life opens up to our students when they share school life with the boys from Saint Peter’s Prep. Most of our students find their free time filled with being engaged in various clubs. In Jersey City, they experience socializing beyond school life. As exchange students at Prep, they experience something new: the identification and strong bonds to the school, culminating in a great pride of what they have succeeded in as a school team being active in various extracurricular activities.”

Christine Becker, an exchange participant from 2009 sums it well, “I personally try to keep a little portion of those American values and will try hard to teach and pass them on to my later pupils because the exchange also strengthened my wish to become a German and especially English teacher. In my opinion the exchange was – and still is – an enrichment for all of us because we learn about another culture in a very vivid way which cannot be replaced by any grammar or text book in school.” If the past is prologue, then the next 25 years of the German exchange promises to endure and bring about benefits we can scarcely imagine today.

In the end, the personal experiences on a human level keep the exchange between our two schools going.