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By Kathryn Harris
The Bowling Green Independent School District is known for being one of the most ethnically diverse school districts in Kentucky. The district attempts to support students of all ethnicities and backgrounds. For example, the Teranga Academy within the district was established for students who have been in the United States for three years or less and who are multilingual. The goal of Teranga is to prepare its students for English speaking middle school and high school.
Another source of diversity within the district, specifically within BGHS, is the foreign exchange student program. The high school has an active exchange program with BGHS students traveling to Germany to attend school, in addition to many German students coming to the United States and attending BGHS.
Mia Mohnke is one of those who came from Germany to BGHS. She was presented with the opportunity through a program between the United States and German congress called the Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange (CBYX). Through the program, both American and German students can win scholarships to study abroad in the other country. CBYX is aimed at politically interested students as the exchange students act as ambassadors for their respective countries. Practically all expenses are covered through this scholarship, such as transportation and meals.
It was a long process for Mia to receive her scholarship from CBYX. She had to apply for the scholarship more than one year before she arrived in the States.
Mia standing with a German flag in front of her Germany presentation during BGHS Culture Day.
After the first round of applications, Mia received an email that invited her and around 20 other applicants to an assessment center. She, along with the other invited individuals performed teamwork exercises and completed tests on American politics, geography, and English writing and speaking.
Mia has been learning English since she was in first grade. She explains that her English education quickly became more complicated as she got older: “I don’t think you can count the English in elementary school from like first grade to fourth grade because we just learned ‘Hello, what’s your name?’ the fruits, and vegetables… In sixth grade, it starts with grammar and irregular verbs… In ninth grade, everything was grammar.”
Three applicants were then chosen to move to the final round of the application process based on their results from that testing.
Mia was one of those three applicants. The selected three met with a regional politician, and the politician chose one of the applicants to study abroad.
A few days after that meeting, Mia received a letter stating she had been awarded the scholarship.
She was very excited about receiving this scholarship because as someone who is interested in pursuing politics she got the opportunity to “learn about American culture because it’s not like we think it is.” She describes American culture as being “really different from German culture.”
Mia notes that the biggest difference she has experienced is food culture in Germany versus America: “In Germany and kind of in Europe in general, people really sit down and eat dinner together. It can take one hour to eat because you don’t just eat. You talk while you have your dinner.” She contrasts this with how the American diet involves a lot of fast food along with eating quicker.
Another difference Mia has experience in American culture compared to German culture is she feels that Americans are more friendly. She has found that this difference comes as a struggle to foreign exchange students in America because they can confuse the societal standard of American “friendliness” with genuine concern, especially with greetings: “[Americans] always say like ‘Hi, how are you?... But its like you just say ‘I’m fine’ You don’t have to tell them your whole life story, that’s not what they are asking for.”
That isn’t the only challenge Mia has worked to overcome while in America. She finds that making genuine friends is hard in the US because according to Mia, Germans tend to have fewer friends while Americans have large friend groups. She also notes that friendships in Germany “are really deep and we talk about problems and just everything.”
She noted that although it’s hard to make friends during an exchange visit, “it’s easier to survive your exchange when you have friends.” Therefore, Mia has made an effort to become friends with people that do similar activities with her, such as the girls on the cheerleading team.
Mia on the sidelines during the KHSAA 5A State Championship Final between BG vs Cooper.
Although Mia hasn’t struggled with homesickness while away from Germany, there are aspects of Germany she misses. The lack of public transportation in the United States is one of those aspects. She finds that she doesn’t have as much independence in the States compared to Germany because she is always having to ask someone for a ride. In addition, exchange students in the CBYX program are not allowed to drive while in America, so having a car isn’t an option for Mia.
Mia also wishes that playing sports were as cheap in America as they are in Germany. For example, Mia is a gymnast, and in Germany she can pay $40 a week to practice at a gym, which also includes classes. In contrast, she paid $110 to just join a gymnastic club in America.
Despite this, she does enjoy some aspects of sports culture in America, such as the school spirit and pep rallies because German schools don’t have school sports, only club sports.
Because Mia wanted to improve her tumbling skills for gymnastics, she joined the BGHS cheerleading team: “I found out that gymnastics was only going to be two times a week, and I thought, I should do something else to improve my tumbling, and my mom came up with idea to join the cheer team… I went to practice, and I was so impressed. The cheer team is so good.”
In addition, she has been impressed with how ambitious each member of the team is, and how nice they were. She noted that the girls on the team gave her a group of friends to hang out with when she first arrived in the United States.
While in Germany, Mia coaches gymnastics to a group of younger girls, but she can not do that here because she is not allowed to work due to rules set by the CBYX program.
Mia will attend BGHS until the end of the 2023-2024 school year, and then return to Germany shortly after the school year ends.
Mia in her BGHS cheerleading uniform.
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