Campus On/Or About
GILMOUR HOSTS DANISH STUDENTS
The McDowell family with their guests, Asja Secerbegovic and Karoline Poulsen.
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or a week in October, several Gilmour students and their families, as well as Gilmour faculty and staff members, hosted a group of 19 Danish students and two Danish teachers. The hosts included: Aidan Coyle ’13, Ricky Renner ’14, Madison McDowell ’15, Skylar Schambs ’14, Caitlin Whetstone ’15, Maggie Dick ’13, Sarah Harmon ’15, Sean McLennan ’15, Dennis Grencewicz ’16, Kathryn Masaryk ’14 and Kiersten Dietrick ’15. Social studies and English instructor Matt Greenfield and his wife hosted teacher Kenneth Søndberg Hansen. Health and physical education instructor Cyndi Smith and residence hall housemother and media services manager Bonnie and Neal Busch hosted teacher Karina Fogtmann Sørensen. The Danish group arrived in Cleveland Friday evening and was very excited to ride a yellow school bus to Gilmour’s campus. They’ve seen them in movies but don’t have them in Denmark. On Saturday, the host families and their guests did activities on their own to show the students what family life is like in America. On Sunday, the Danish group attended the Browns vs. Bengals game (and even saw a Browns victory!). Student Anne Mai Bruun, 19, said, “It was so amazing,
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the highlight of the trip! We don’t have anything like that in Denmark.” Monday, the students spent the day at Gilmour. Tuesday began with the Danish students giving a presentation on Denmark at Convocation, touching on everything from Denmark’s geography to holiday traditions to food to famous Danes. The Danish group then visited the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Key Tower before doing a tour of Cleveland aboard Lolly the Trolley. Wednesday was filled with more touring, with stops at the West Side Market, the Cleveland Clinic, the Cleveland Museum of Natural History and the art museum. The Cleveland Clinic tour was arranged by Gilmour parent, Dr. James Young, professor of medicine and Executive Dean of the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine. The visit included a tour of the anatomy lab, lunch and a tour of the hospital. Thursday and Friday, the Danish students spent the day at two more schools. On Thursday, they attended an Amish school and on Friday, they shadowed at Orange High School before heading back to Gilmour’s campus for a farewell dinner in the evening with the host families. Julie Bligaard, 18, said of the three schools they saw, Orange was the most like their school in Denmark. Teacher Kenneth Søndberg Hansen said that the trip was “awesome” (he enjoyed using that American
The McLennan family with their guests, Nina Storgaard and Martin Kjaer Simonsen.