Hauppauge Hosts Visit from German Exchange Students

Hauppauge High School students and their families recently hosted a visit from students from the Gymnasium Neu Wulmstorf in Germany as part of the schools’ annual German Student Exchange Program. Each fall, Hauppauge students visit Germany, and then the Hauppauge community hosts the German exchange students in the spring.

Hauppauge High School’s German students introduced their exchange partners to American baseball with a visit to a New York Mets game at Citi Field on April 2, 2014. The Mets game followed several days spent traveling to Manhattan, Boston, Port Jefferson and shopping. “At a farewell dinner, the students exclaimed that this had been a wonderful exchange, and that friends were made for life," stated Hauppauge German Teacher Patricia Siebel. “Teachers, parents and students all agreed that these experiences are what education was all about.”

Launched in 1976, Hauppauge’s German Student Exchange Program is thought to be the longest same-school to same-school partnership in the National Association of Secondary Schools Principals (NASSP)/German American Partnership Program (GAPP). “In our increasingly global world, the German Student Exchange Program offers our young adults an invaluable opportunity to expand their global horizons through firsthand immersion in the daily life and culture of another country,” stated Lillian Carey, director of Languages Other than English and Integration of Instructional Technology.