Here at the high school many new students come in every year. But this year three of these new students are from Germany. Their names are Jacob, Lea Fouler, and Laura Hemberger.
Hemberger came here with Lea and Jacob through the Partnership International or in America it is known as FLAG. This helps send kids like Laura, Jacob, and Lea to America. Hemberger has many reasons for coming to America such as to experience new things and to improve her English. She also says that there are a few differences between the high school and her school in Germany. The first thing she mentions is the grades. Instead of getting grades A, B, C, D, F in Germany they are graded on a scale from 1-6.
The other smaller things she mentions that are different are that the lesson books in America are larger than the books they use in Germany. There is no lunch at Laura’s school in Germany, there are no lockers at her old school and the teachers come to the student’s class
Hemberger says the only thing really hard about transferring to the high school and moving to Paola is that a lot of the people talk really fast and even at times too fast for her. But she said she still enjoys it here and all of the people.
But even though moving to America is a new and fun experience she said she still misses many things back in Germany. This includes her friends and real family. She has two brothers, named Robert and Lukas are whom she really misses.
Hemberger said she enjoys many things about the Paola and the high school. She says she has two favorite classes, French and Choir. She also knows three languages total, French, English, and German fluently. Another thing she enjoys about Paola is that our little stores. She doesn’t technically like all of the stores but the fact that some of them are open on Sundays. She also likes her house family, the family she is staying with until she returns to Germany, the Bardwell’s. Courtney Bardwell is a freshman this year and she has an older brother Jordan Bardwell who is a junior.