Elisabeth Vormann is a foreign exchange student at Calhoun High this year. She is from Bad Camberg Germany and is living with host family Jeannie Bennett-Montgomery and children while in West Virginia.
Elisabeth has always been interested to see and live in the way people her age in other countries live. Her parents supported her and helped her to realize her "dream of studying in the USA".
When asked what she thinks of Calhoun County and West Virginia, Elisabeth says "I remember the day when I arrived...well, I was surprised because I didn't expect it to be that rural. It is a lot different from where I live in Germany. But the big difference makes this experience as an exchange student more interesting."
She says the people at Calhoun High School are very nice. The teachers and students are very cool. It is nice to see how good the relationship between students and teachers occurs.
She finds the curriculum easier at CHS than the one she is used to in Germany. She says her whole school system is very different but also thinks it depends on the classes you take as to the difficulty. Her first semester at CHS was much easier than the current semester.
The curriculum in Germany is different from Monday through Friday. While the curriculum repeats here every day, the curriculum in Germany repeats every week. In Germany you cannot choose what classes to take, the county staff where you live tells you what you have to take.
The classes Elisabeth had to take last year included, music or art, physics, chemistry, math, sports, politics, religion, biology and computer science 2 periods per week; Latin 3 periods per week; French and English 4 periods per week; and German 5 periods per week.
Elisabeth was at her German school from 7:40 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Every class period was 45 minutes long. Sometimes she had to go to school at 10:00 a.m. and finish at 5:00 p.m. She says school in Germany is really just studying and not much for fun. There are no afternoon activities at her school. She really enjoys participating in basketball, band and the Pride team at CHS. To describe the relationship between students and teachers here, Elisabeth would say that it is a friendship. In Germany it is very important to be very, very respectful.
Elisabeth says she has really loved her experience of high school in Calhoun County. She has met very nice people and made friends for life. If anybody has the opportunity to be an exchange student, she feels they should really take the chance. It is a great experience. It is not only about learning a language, it is about learning for life. A time you will never forget.
Elisabeth's mother contacted the school in February and said, "I'd like to tell you that your school homepage is wonderful. I take a look at it every day so I can see Elisabeth, her friends and what they do. It is very nice and we're pleased that Elisabeth is in such a good school."
Courtesy of Calhoun High School
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