7/3/2007 - Home away from home: German student spends the year in Shrewsbury
by Nathaniel Weixel
SPECIAL TO THE TELEGRAM & GAZETTE
SHREWSBURY— Dennis Gothlich didn’t know much about Shrewsbury when he applied to come here as an exchange student. In fact, before he arrived last August, the 16-year-old from Guben, Germany, had communicated only briefly with his host family.
“I knew it was a suburban town, but not much else,” Dennis said.
Dennis said his first surprise was how large the town was. In Guben, he said, a small town on the Polish border, he could ride a bicycle everywhere he needed to go. He couldn’t do that in Shrewsbury.
“Everything was pretty spread out,” he said.
Dennis studied for the entire school year at Shrewsbury High School, where he was a junior. Had he stayed in Germany, Dennis said, he only would have been a sophomore. While it was nice to say he was a junior, he said, he will essentially have to repeat the year when he gets back home.
The main differences between his school in Guben and Shrewsbury High were the size and the workload. Dennis said Shrewsbury High was almost twice as big as his school in Germany. He said he was required to study three languages in Guben: English, Russian and Latin. At Shrewsbury, he didn’t have to take any.
Dennis’ trip was sponsored by the American Field Service, an international organization that promotes intercultural learning. AFS provides students with scholarships to study abroad so that the trip is not a financial strain on the students’ families. Without the AFS scholarship, Dennis said, he wouldn’t have been able to come to America.
There were other German students participating in the AFS program, but Dennis said he was the only one to come to Shrewsbury. He said that probably wasn’t a bad thing.
“Being the only (German student) … allowed me to interact with Americans more, learn more about American culture,” Dennis said. If he had been with other Germans, he said, he might not have been as sociable.
Dennis’s visit to Shrewsbury may have been the last exchange student the town sees for some time. Earlier this month, Shrewsbury voters rejected a Proposition 2-½ tax override, and as a result, the town will not be accepting foreign exchange students next year.
Dennis’s host mother, Sharon Taylor, said if the override repercussions hold, the Shrewsbury students would miss out on an opportunity to experience other cultures.
“The American students enjoy” having exchange students, Mrs. Taylor said. “They can learn about other cultures hands on, without having to read it in a book.”
Mrs. Taylor said Dennis made the most of his 10-month stay in Shrewsbury. He went to numerous sporting events, including Red Sox games, Celtics games and a New England Revolution soccer match. She said Dennis was also involved in a number of extracurricular volunteer activities, including helping in the Shrewsbury High guidance department and volunteering with the Shrewsbury Youth Basketball program. Mrs. Taylor said Dennis also took weekly guitar lessons.
Even though he had no previous rowing experience, Dennis joined the Shrewsbury High novice rowing team. He said his most rewarding experience came when the crew won the state championship.
“It was awesome, it was a lot of fun, especially since I had never rowed before,” he said.
Dennis was the first AFS student Mrs. Taylor has hosted. She has no children in Shrewsbury High, but still said she feels a connection to the community.
“We believe the connection to our young people, particularly the local schools, is an important part of being involved with any community,” Mrs. Taylor said.
Mrs. Taylor said she has been a firm supporter of the AFS program since she was in high school, where she met an exchange student from Sweden.
AFS “has always been familiar, and hosting was something we were interested in as a learning experience,” Mrs. Taylor said. “It’s … fun to meet people from other places.”
Mrs. Taylor said she and her husband learned a lot from having Dennis in their home, including European recipes and board games.
“Dennis enriched our lives in so many ways. We were astonished at his bravery in coming this far at such a young age and wanting to embrace so much,” she said.
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