Hello Ruhrgebiet!

Our school group from Old Bridge High School, New Jersey, spent two weeks in Duisburg in April as part of a GAPP student exchange with our partner school, the Steinbart Gymnasium.

During our stay, we experienced everything the Ruhr area has to offer—from Currywurst and Döner to a firsthand look at work in a steel mill. Staying with German families gave us the opportunity to learn a lot about daily life in Germany, such as recycling bottles at the grocery store and using the extensive public transportation system. We were surprised to find out that students are allowed to leave the school premises during break! We all returned with many memories and new friendships, many of which will surely last a lifetime.

On April 9, 2024, we had the privilege of attending a special event at the Ministry of Education NRW in Düsseldorf. It was a wonderful opportunity for us from the USA to participate in the very interesting presentations on fake news, held as part of the NRW-USA Year. We also had the chance to meet the US Consul in Düsseldorf, Ms. Pauline Kao, and speak with many other participants.

Many thanks to the GAPP team at the Goethe Institute New York and Ms. Richter from the Ministry of Education in Düsseldorf for making this possible! It was a truly amazing day!

Die Old Bridge High School in New Jersey

The Old Bridge High School is located approximately 35 miles outside of New York City and is attended by about 3,000 students across two campuses. In addition to core subjects such as mathematics, science, and economics, the school offers specialized elective courses like cosmetology, ceramics, handicrafts, auto repair, music production, and even an eSports course. The foreign language program includes Mandarin Chinese, German, French, Italian, and Spanish, with German being the second most popular language. The popularity of learning German is also attributed to the German-American GAPP exchange program, which has been in place for over 10 years, providing hundreds of students with an authentic exchange experience.

The partner school of Old Bridge High School in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) is Steinbart Gymnasium in Duisburg. Sixteen American students and two teachers from Old Bridge High School, who were visiting Duisburg at the time, participated in the kick-off event for the student competition “All fake?”