NASHUA – This week, families from Nashua High School North, Nashua High School South and Souhegan High School said goodbye to the 34 students and three teachers who traveled from Mannheim, Germany, to learn more about American culture.

An exchange program has been running at Nashua High School South for six years and 16 years at Souhegan High School.

Each year, the trip has been coordinated through Carousel Student Tours and teachers from each host school. This year’s participating teachers included Nashua North’s Leslie Anton and Neha Joshi, Nashua South’s Jayne Wing and Kim Vitchkoski and Souhegan’s Jennifer Spara.

Students and teachers traveling from Germany stay with individual host families for two weeks in October.

This year, the students and teachers arrived on Oct. 11. During their trip, they were able to visit Boston and tour Harvard University, the Museum of Science, Fenway Park, Faneuil Hall, as well as Portsmouth and Ogunquit, Maine. Students also had the opportunity to shadow their host siblings during the school day.

On Oct. 25, those staying with families at Nashua South were able to conclude their trip by carving Halloween pumpkins donated from Lull Farms, which will stay at the houses of their host families.

Unlike many of her classmates, German exchange student Meike Trojhan, a junior, will be staying with a family from Nashua High School South for the rest of the year.

She said since her arrival, her English has drastically improved.

“This has been an amazing experience. It’s completely different from Germany,” Trojhan said Friday. Differences that Trojhan noticed include the friendlier relationships with students and their teachers, longer classes and the smaller size of the city.

Susi Seitz, one of the three teachers accompanying the students on the trip, said the students come from a crowded city of 350,000 people.

“We don’t have as much open space,” Seitz said.

Despite the differences, Seitz said her students have enjoyed their host families.

“We are excited that we are able to come here and have the kids experience what they’re experiencing,” Seitz said. “It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity.”

She added, “I think it’s very beneficial because this is the only time they can really stay with host families. It helps then engage in the American culture. I really think it helps them grow up too. When they visit, they encounter so much.”

As for the students at both of Nashua’s high schools and Souhegan, Nashua High School South German teacher Kim Vitchkoski said they also benefit from the visit.

“It’s definitely wonderful for the students to make those personal connections. It motivates them so much more than a textbook would,” Vitchkoski said.

In the spring, the Department of World Languages at Nashua High School North, Nashua High School South and Souhegan High School will offer a trip to Germany and Austria.

This time, the students will be the ones staying with German families. During their time, they will participate in educational tours and be able to attend classes with their “host siblings.”

Last week, the German Department at Nashua South was also able to host the American Association of Teachers of German’s new traveling exhibit titled First Encounters: Menschen begegnen sich, which consists of nine double-sided roll-up banners displaying “the history of migration and its effects in shaping the German-American transatlantic friendship.”

The exhibit was displayed on one side in German and on the other side in English.

Grace Pecci may be reached at 594-1243, or at gpecci@nashuatelegraph.com.

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