EHS Teacher: Bonds Formed in German Exchange Program Life-Changing

Best friends make it a priority to stay in touch and make time for each other. Best friends who teach both sides of a German-American language program, who met as students 14 years ago in this very same program, take it one step further and do family planning around their exchange schedules to ensure an uninterrupted program. Enumclaw High School German teacher Sara Stout, now with a 9-month-old at home, smiles at the idea, but she and Beate Hartl clearly value their long-distance friendship as they've traveled to visit each other at least 15 times since their student days. "We said then we wanted to be language teachers," Stout said. "We wanted to run the exchange someday." After a few more years of schooling, Hartl landed a teaching job at her old school Karl-von-Closen-Gymnasiums, as did Stout at EHS. "Last year, we coordinated for the first time, and we realized we were doing it." Stout took over the program after the retirement of her teacher, Gretchen LaTurner in 2010, and took her first group of students overseas in 2011. LaTurner pioneered the program 20 years ago through the German American Partnership Program (GAPP). The exchange program runs every two years, so 17 Enumclaw High School students are getting ready to head overseas this summer after hosting their German counterparts here this spring. While GAPP funds a lot of the expenses involved in the exchange, students still begin fundraising work early through events including Winterfest and Oktoberfest at school to help cover travel costs, Stout said. Expenses are kept minimal because the teachers do all of the itinerary planning and because the students stay with host families in both countries. The German students stay with an Enumclaw family while here, and the Enumclaw students stay with the same German students' families when they go abroad, Stout said. "This way, they really get to know that person well," Stout said. The fulfilling thing for Stout is seeing the students embrace their new German friends and maintain their friendships with as much gusto as she has with Hartl over the last 14 years. Technology and social media has made staying in touch even easier. "The exchange, I know it changes their lives," she said. "That's why I became a German teacher and Beate became an English teacher. We wanted to give that opportunity to students that we had. We keep in touch with alumni and they go back and forth." The Enumclaw students will be traveling to Europe from June 16 through July 11; Stout said they'll focus on southern Germany as their exchange Gymnasium is in Bavaria. However, they will also take trips outside of Germany and visit parts of Austria and the Czech Republic.  In addition to exposing the students to more cultures, entering into another foreign country where they have no knowledge of the native language actually helps bolster their confidence in their German-speaking ability, especially when they return to Germany, Stout said. The experience "opens doors to students to travel and realize the benefit of international relations," she said. "It gives them that confidence that they can do it on their own."