Antrim explained that he had just started a new German student exchange program through the German American Partnership Program (GAPP) in which he chose to partner with a school in Calw, Germany.
The 15 German students arrived in Edwardsville with their two teacher chaperones on Feb. 1 and began attending classes with their host EHS students the following day. The German students followed the class schedule of their host EHS student for a few days before Antrim arranged for them to observe classes that were more of personal interest to the exchange students.
The exchange students’ days and evenings were filled with numerous opportunities to learn about EHS, the city of Edwardsville, SIUE, the St. Louis area, and the general life of Americans. They went to Woodland Elementary one day to speak to the elementary students about how different life is in Germany compared to America. They also toured SIUE and went bowling on campus, toured Busch Stadium and explored City Museum in St. Louis.
Antrim pointed out that he chose the city of Calw, located in southwestern Germany, because the size of the city, the school they’ll be visiting and the school’s classes are similar to Edwardsville. Location was also important. “The fact that they are in the middle of the Black Forest makes it so that we can have all kinds of beautiful things to see while we are there. They are close to a bunch of different places that are interesting to go to,” Antrim said. “Stuttgart is not too far away. They are the home city of Hermann Hesse, a German author.”
