Lena Volz lived in Gedern’s US sister city Columbia for a year. The expectations she had associated with her exchange year were exceeded. A look back.
Visits to games of the St. Louis Blues, one of the best ice hockey teams in the US professional league NHL, or the baseball players of the Cardinals in Major League Baseball (MLB), vacations in Florida, short trips to a holiday home on a lake – Lena Volz has experienced a lot in the past year. The student spent that in Gedern’s US sister city of Columbia in the state of Illinois, where she also went to high school. So it’s no wonder that the 17-year-old from Usenborn says, looking back on her stay on the Mississippi: “I liked it so much, I could go back there straight away.”
The high expectations of the Gedern comprehensive school student for her exchange year in Columbia were not only met, but even exceeded. The teenager from Usenborn was housed with the family of Don Völker, the adoptive father of Paige Knight, Lena’s friend of the same age, whom she met online.
hardly any problems
to find oneself
The 17-year-old has long since settled back at home. First of all, Lena Volz, who returned weeks ago because the summer holidays in America were beginning earlier, had to spend the last few days before the holidays in Hesse at the Gedern comprehensive school. German thoroughness allowed no other solution. The school year in America, however, is fully recognized.
In Columbia, Lena Volz hardly had any problems finding her feet. “Even chemistry worked well at school, which isn’t necessarily my strong point,” she says with a laugh, looking at a subject that she had to sink her teeth into first. “Other than that, the school’s technical possibilities were much broader and more modern than ours,” she sums up. Even with the homework, there was hardly any frustration. Everything else was like in Germany: finding classmates you get along with, having fun in cliques, endless dates.
The attentive hosts made sure that nothing was missing in the family. The guest from Germany got along very well with his friend Paige, even her younger brother Wyatt Völker rarely got on her nerves. Otherwise, Mama Keri Völker, a teacher, and Papa Don, catering operator and real estate agent, made sure that everything stayed in order.
In August 2021, Lena Volz was on the plane from Frankfurt to Chicago. A dream was to come true for the youngster from Usenborn, after she had trembled for a long time about whether the exchange year could take place. In 2020, on the original date, the corona pandemic thwarted her plans. A year later, the Americans had relaxed the entry ban. Lena’s father, Harald Müller, made it possible with his personal commitment to get a visa.
The journey into the big, wide world could begin, especially since the twinning association Gedern/Columbia supported the project financially. The student exchange program has been running admirably for about 30 years. One of the reasons for this is that the exchange is very important at both schools and is encouraged by leaders, such as the English teacher Andreas Heuser in Gedern, who was a man from the very beginning.
Mother Tanja Volz was relieved when she found out that her daughter Lena had been picked up by the host in Chicago. Don Völker got into his jeep, drove the more than 400 kilometers on the highway to Chicago and brought the young German to Columbia near St. Louis. What Lena was to experience there for almost a year, she will not soon forget.
Maybe in the
study in the United States
The enormous enthusiasm for sport in the Völker family was also the focus in early summer of this year, when everyone was there to bring Lena Volz back home and spent ten beautiful days in Germany in the house of Harald Müller and Tanja Volz. Since the international football match between Germany and England was taking place during this time, the hosts invited their guests to the stadium in Munich, which was just as eventful as the rest of the stay.
After her positive experiences, Lena Volz can certainly imagine studying in America. Her exchange friend Paige Knight will be visiting again at the end of the year and would like to spend Christmas and New Year’s Eve in Germany. BY MICHAEL GIERS
