Project Location/Destination: Out of town - Berlin, Germany
Faculty Leaders: Stephanie Rever Chu & Ingrid Dorer Fitzpatrick
Travel Dates: Saturday March 11 to Tuesday March 21, 2023 (Please note project begins on Saturday, March 11 and ends on Tuesday, March 21)
Anticipated Hosting Dates: Mid-October 2023 (probably 10/14-10/23)
Cost: $2485
Please note that registration for this Global Exchange Program includes an additional application process. See details below.
Special Considerations:
See below.
Objectives & Description
The Berlin Exchange is part of a multi-faceted global education program that enables Latin students to become globally aware, understand the interconnection of cultures, embrace difference, and engage with people of various parts of the world. Our partnership with Georg Herwegh Gymnasium (GHG), which began in 2006, allows students to expand their understanding of German history and culture while living with families in Berlin, Hermsdorf, and other small towns surrounding Germany’s capital city. In turn GHG students are hosted by Latin families and experience Chicago as part of their school’s English language immersion opportunities.
After a two-year hiatus due to Covid 19, we are resuming this exchange in the spring of 2023. A group of 12-16 students from Latin will travel to Berlin during P-Week and the beginning of spring break, 2023. In turn, Latin students will host their exchange partners for a period of 8-10 days in the fall of 2023. While preference is given to students whose families commit to reciprocal hosting, we will accept applications by those who may not be able to host in 2023 (e.g., seniors) but are fully invested in the experience and willing to help us look for alternate hosts (perhaps a younger sibling or a Latin classmate) for their German counterparts.
While in Berlin, students attend classes at Georg Herwegh and experience history through the ages while visiting sites ranging from the Hohenzollern imperial palace of Charlottenburg to Berlin’s Reichstag and Brandenburg Gate, Checkpoint Charlie, the Jewish Museum, and Sachsenhausen concentration camp. Though we’ll do a sweep of history through the ages, the focus on the Nazi and Cold War eras is intentional and serves as an extension of students’ study in classes such as Nazi Mind and Russian Revolutions while complementing their study of 20th century American history and providing context for the policies of American presidents John F Kennedy (JFK's "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech) and Ronald Reagan (Ronald Reagan's "Mr. Gorbachev--tear down this wall" speech).
Students also experience Berlin’s growing cultural diversity, a central feature of post-reunification (October 3, 1990) when the city resumed its position as Germany’s capital and became a magnet for people from all over the world (20% of Berliners are foreign born with large numbers of immigrants from Poland and Turkey, and hundreds of thousands of conflict refugees from Syria and Ukraine). We encounter this global diversity in Georg Herwegh’s “welcome classes” and as we explore various neighborhoods with a range of cuisines, including Berlin’s famous Curry Wurst and Döner. We’ll have an opportunity to see Berlin’s stunning array of street art, to experience theatre, dance or vocal performances, and to visit world-famous museums such as the Pergamon and the Neue Museum as well as smaller venues such as the contemporary arts museum of Hamburger Bahnhof. And what about soccer, the quintessential cultural experience anywhere in Europe? Berlin Hertha soccer will be on the itinerary if Berlin plays on March 18! If not, we’ll at least visit the stadium where Hertha matches are played; this stadium, built for the 1936 Olympics, was intended to show off Aryan athletic prowess, a goal undermined by American Jesse Owens, who stunned the world with four track & field gold medals.
Per our long-standing tradition, participants in the Berlin exchange take a 2- or 3-day excursion via intercity train to Nuremberg, where students are introduced to life in a small, regional city and continue their historical and cultural studies. Visits to the medieval Nuremberg Castle, the Documentation Center, a museum built on the site of the rally grounds of Nazi Party, and to Saal 600, site of the historic Nuremberg Trials are among the highlights of the Nuremberg segment of our experience.
Student Requirements and Expectations
Students are required to fill out an application to the Global Exchanges program. The applications will be reviewed and participants determined within days of the November 14 deadline. PLEASE NOTE: The selection process for exchanges is not random but based on the application and specific criteria used to match the applicants with their prospective host families. We anticipate that we will be able to confirm participants for this exchange by November 18.
A central aspect of the Berlin Exchange is cultural immersion facilitated by reciprocal hosting. Students live and engage with their host families in Berlin, so they need to be culturally sensitive, flexible and independent. That independence extends to navigating the transportation system, as needed, to get to and from the school in Berlin-Hermsdorf.
Interaction between students from Latin and GHG will begin virtually during the second quarter of 2022 and continue through the second quarter of 2023. All students travelling in 2023 will participate in the creation of a visual narrative of their experiences in Berlin and Nuremberg.
NOTE: Students will need a current passport that does not expire until 6 months after our anticipated travel date. The passport application and renewal processes have change dramatically since pre-COVID. Please take care of this immediately once accepted into this program. Students who have a valid, non-US passport, should see their project leaders as soon as possible because travel guidelines may be different for them than for US citizens.
If you do not have an American passport, please see project leaders as soon as you are placed in the project.
***Students interested in this Exchange must fill out a short supplemental application for the special selection process:
APPLICATION HERE****
About the faculty
The Berlin Exchange group will be accompanied by Latin faculty member Ingrid Dorer Fitzpatrick and Latin's Director of Alumni Engagement, Stephanie Rever Chu. Ingrid Dorer Fitzpatrick is European-born and a native German speaker. She has taught Nazi Mind, as well as AP European history, European Civilization and Russian history. She oversees the Global Exchange program and has over fifteen years of exchange experience with our host school in Berlin.
Now in her 13th year at Latin, Ms. Chu loves to foster helpful connections between alumni and students. Familiar with Berlin and a veteran of Latin international exchanges, Ms. Chu traveled with the China exchange in 2019, and her (now alumni) children hosted exchange students from China and Spain.
Special Considerations
Accommodation considerations - Students will live with a matched host family and may have to share a room with their host student or a sibling.
COVID related information - Some venues may require proof of COVID vaccination or negative test. Students are encouraged to travel with this information and provide it, if required. Please contact the project leaders or School Nurse with any questions or concerns.
Food limitations and allergies - Students with food allergies and food sensitivities should understand that there may be times that food options will be limited. In addition, there may be cross contamination risk of allergens, as there will be times where outside food vendors will prepare our meals. Please contact the project leaders or School Nurse with any questions or concerns.
Passport Requirement - Students must have a valid passport that expires more than six months upon return.
Scheduling (Out-of-Town) - This project will have time commitment outside of the M-F (8-4) typical school week. Please note that there is an expectation that students are able to attend the whole time the project is running.
Special selection process - Participants are expected to embrace living with a host family and are willing to read articles and watch videos on Germany and culture before traveling to Berlin. Except for seniors, participants and their families should be open to hosting a German exchange student in Fall of 2023. If unable to host, students participating in this project are expected to participate in the activities hosted by Latin when the German visit Chicago.
Supervision during the day - Students might be unsupervised for short periods of time during the course of the day.
Sensitive Topics - Students will be exposed to sensitive topics.
Transportation considerations - Students will take public transportation with faculty.
Global Exchange Vision and Programs
Global Exchanges and Partnerships are part of a broader global education program at Latin designed to prepare our students to become aware, empathetic, competent citizens of the world. Specifically the program aims to help students:
Understand what is going on globally and discern the interconnectedness of cultures
Respect people of different cultures, embrace difference, and show empathy that reaches beyond national boundaries
Engage with people from various parts of the world, tackle real-world global problems, and show increasing competence in their ability to communicate in more than one language
These goals are in line with the School’s Mission and the values of excellence, community and integrity outlined in our Teaching and Learning document as well as the goals of our DEI work and NAIS principles of good practice regarding Education for Global Citizenship.