A little piece of Germany is coming back to York County this next school year.
During a recent York County School District school board meeting, Sandy Hespe, coordinator of career development for the district, presented information on the Zweibrücken Student Exchange Program which is planned to begin during the 2019-2020 school year.
The Zweibrücken Student Exchange Program is not a new concept in York County. In 1976, the program started as a way to honor the historical connection between Yorktown and Zweibrücken, a town in Germany, Hespe said.
During the Revolutionary War, citizens from Zweibrücken fought as allies alongside the Continental Army in the Siege of Yorktown, which eventually helped win the war, Hespe said.
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To commemorate the historic friendship, the exchange student program started where students from Zweibrücken would stay with locals in Yorktown for a few weeks and then students in York County would go to stay in Zweibrücken.
The goal of the program was to give students from both countries the chance to explore historical sites, participate in cultural activities, attend school together and experience home life with host families, according to the presentation.
The program was suspended in 2011 because of a reorganization and calendar changes in Zweibrücken that made it difficult to plan.
Now, however, both York County and Zweibrücken are eager to bring the program back but with a few changes.
“As the conversation started with our counterparts in Zweibrücken, we agreed that some updates needed to occur based on past experience…in order to promote the sustainability for the program,” Hespe said.
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One of the new aspects is that students who wish to host an exchange student must have already taken three years of a world language or are currently enrolled in year three of a language.
Additionally, Hespe said now each program would have a coordinator who would be available at all times during the exchange experience.
Students will be staying for shorter periods of time, too. After hearing from previous hosts and students, program leaders found the stays that had lasted three to four weeks appeared to be too long for the host families. Instead, students will now only stay for two weeks.
Final details on the program have not been completed yet — the board hopes to finalize funding and program materials to make a community announcement before the end of the summer.
Should the program function on the proposed timeline, families will have access to applications in October and submit them in November.
Following the application process, the program will perform interviews with the applicants and make selections for hosts in December. Then in February and March, there will be informational meetings for parents.
Students from Zweibrücken will finally arrive in Yorktown starting during the YCSD spring break, which begins on April 6.
Then students from York County will visit Zweibrücken for two weeks at the end of June.
Katherine Goff, spokeswoman for the district, said the division is still finalizing program details but once ready, the division will share information with eligible students.
