The German American Partnership Program is a high school linkage program between American high schools with German departments and secondary schools in Germany. Currently, there are approximately 760 active partnerships throughout the United States and Germany. Each year approximately 5,000 American high school students and teachers visit their partners in Germany, and 8,000 German high school students and teachers are hosted by American families and high schools.  One such program has existed in Spalding County since 1998.  Since its inception, over 100 students from both schools have participated in the program.  Currently, another group of German students will be welcomed into the homes of Spalding County students and citizens in October of 2006 to be followed by a vist from the American Students to Oschersleben in June of 2007. (For pictures from this June please visit our Gapp Photo Album page.)

            These German students will mingle with the student population of both Griffin and Spalding High schools and talk to various classes about education in Europe and what life is like for them across the ocean. This program offers both Griffin and Spalding High Schools stimulation, enrichment, and internationalization of their school life, as well as of their foreign language and Social Studies curricula, particularly during the attendance of the visiting students.  A group of American Students from both Griffin and Spalding High Schools will travel in the summer of 2007 to visit the German partner school for a 3 week period.  They will be placed with host parents and students and attend the German high school.  As members of the host families, students experience the everyday life and culture of the partner country, not from the outside as tourists, but from the inside as members of the family. This, in turn, fosters dialogue and friendships between American and German youth, leads as no other process can to the decrease of misconceptions, helps the participants to convey a contemporary image of their country and enhances a career potential in the second language.  During their stay in Germany, students are required to participate in a program designed by the coordinators of the GAPP Program.  In addition to staying with a host family for three weeks and attending the German high school, participants spend an additional week at another major city in Germany.  This may either be Berlin or Munich.  Students stay at a youth hostel during this time and participate in tours to various points of interest within and around these cities.