Invitation
Every year, we host German students from Münster, a wealthy and modern university town in North Rhine-Westphalia . We exchange with the Gymnasium Paulinum, an excellent high school dating back to 797 CE. This means, that ASMS students are also abroad at the same time.
Going Abroad
National exams time and again show very clearly that the students who are continuously enrolled in the language of their choice do much better than those taking one or several terms off. Likewise, there is a marked jump in language performance for the returning language students. However, these young people learn not only to listen, understand and speak in a foreign language, but also to observe and interact in a foreign culture, and to see themselves from a different perspective. Some youngsters have made lasting friendships with their adoptive siblings, and some families have continued visits as a family privately, giving also the parents an exciting window on another lifestyle. The younger your children are when they encounter another language and culture, the more natural and substantial their learning and adapting will be. Openness and flexibility are skills that can serve them well at any time in life.
As busy as high schoolers can be, this is still an opportune time in the development of their personality to study abroad. As we all know, time constraints and other problems will only continue to mount as they grow older. At ASMS, the selection of the traveling students depends not only on overall grades and maturity, but on the input of several faculty members, the advice of counselors, the absence of current or past disciplinary matters and the consent of the directors. We help potentially interested students arrange their schedule in order to accommodate a three-month absence without academic fallout. This has always worked.
Furthermore, the experience can be considered an academic investment in that returning students have a better chance of doing well on the advanced placement tests (AP) that we administer every year. This is your child’s opportunity to collect college credits ahead of time, which can save time and money for the college years, and which in any case enhances the high school diploma.
Meeting Foreign Students
While only a few of our students actually travel, we are trying to open up the experience further by encouraging students and families to consider hosting these foreigners. Our partner schools are not boarding schools, so our ASMS students are hosted in volunteer families for the entire three months. There is no reason, on our side, why the hosting experience should be limited to a handful of families. We hope that the classmates of the students whom we sent to Europe will be hospitable and open-minded towards their temporary classmates, and we invite their families, any ASMS families, to consider having them in your homes for a week-end or over break. Again, this is not only a language learning experience for students enrolled in the target language (although the gain could be considerable!), it could be a memorable and valuable experience for siblings and parents alike.
Lastly, your interest would be a lovely gesture of generosity and American hospitality. Perhaps your senior could use some week-end company at home, your younger child is curious about other languages, or you have benefited from a stay away from home in your youth and would like to pass on the favor.
Feel free to read student and parent reports, or browse pictures and further info here, or contact the sponsor Muriel Hoequist directly at mhoequist@asms.net.
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