Over the summer eleven students and along with 2 teachers, Ford and Klein went to Germany for the G.A.P.P. program. GAPP is a German American Partnership Program that runs every other year and is designed to help students learn about the culture and have the opportunity to learn. Basically eleven students in Germany are chosen from teachers who sign up and they are partnered up together. “They come here and we teach them about America and then we go there in June and they teach us about Germany,” said Taylor Dahl, Junior.

In October the German students came to America to live with their exchange partner. They attended classes here in Pleasant Valley, school provided an adopt a German day where you could of adopt a German student for a whole day. They went on field trips to Philadelphia, and New York, some students like Justin Stasiak took his partner to Dorney Park. “I wanted Niklas to experience something different in America,” said Justin Stasiak, Junior. They went to the homecoming football game last year and to homecoming where two Germans students, Niklas Dietz and Cassandra Grzonkowski did the waltz in the spotlight. “It was really good that they came in the fall when we had Oktoberfest, I’m glad they got to be a part of it. This was our second round of the exchange, so I really liked how accepting the school was with the German students and how they already knew what to expect, said Ford.

 Then in June those 11 students went to Germany and had the opportunity to check out the country for two weeks. “I went to many castles ruins, a soccer stadium, theater performances and cities.  I went to Frankenstein, Burg Eltz Neustadt, and Kaiserslautern, we went to little cafes and walked around cities, ate some tasty food and took tons of pictures, said Taylor Dahl, Junior. The students who went on the trip thought it was a great learning experience and would definitely do it again. “My absolute favorite thing was how beautiful even just walking down the street was. Everything was so clean and vibrant; it was absolutely incredible, said Emily Moody. GAPP is great, it gives the students the opportunity to learn about and experience living life,” said Klein.