Main Line Private School Students Spend Summer Vacation Abroad

Oct. 27, 2009 - PRLog -- When asked what they did on their summer vacation, many teenagers respond with the usual, “work, beach, hung out with my friends.”

For six Devon Prep students the answer may well be, “I had the experience of a lifetime.”

These students, Juniors Albert Emhof, Gregory Angiolillo, Douglas Cichowicz, Richard Glikes, Justin Wickersham and senior Felipe Suero traveled to Stuttgart Germany for several weeks this summer.  They lived with students (and their families) from the Albertus-Magnus Gymnasium (AMG), a private co-ed high school in Stuttgart.

They were participating in the German American Partnership Program (GAPP), an exchange program that provides high school students with the opportunity to learn about German and American culture and language. Devon Prep has been participating in GAPP for more than 15 years with AMG as its partner school.  

While in Stuttgart the students attended classes at AMG on some days, and spent other days visiting sites in the city and surrounding areas such as the Porsche and Mercedes Museums, the TV tower, and the center district of Kongistrasse.

They also visited Konstanze and Breisach in Germany, climbed a mountain in the Alps of Austria, tried escargot in France, and visited the waterfalls of the Rhine River in Switzerland.  They ended their trip with a four-day stay in Munich where they visited the Allianz Arena (Munich’s soccer stadium), the concentration camp of Dachau, and several other landmarks.  

They all agreed the trip was a wonderful experience, especially living with and getting to know their host families. All of the students are looking forward to returning to Germany in the future.

“It was the best experience of my life,” said Albert Emhof. “My host family was great. They even had a celebration for me on my 16th birthday which occurred while I was there.”

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Devon Prep is a private, Catholic, college preparatory school for young men in grades six to 12 conducted by the Piarist Fathers. Devon Prep enrolls nearly 300 students who hail from the five county Philadelphia area. Visit www.devonprep.com.