Dear Parents/Guardians, Community Members, and Staff:
Fountain Hills High School is currently hosting 16 students from Dierdorff, Germany as part of this year's Sister Cities Student Exchange Program. You may recall that last year we hosted a group of students from Dierdorff, Germany and Zamosc, Poland. We then sent a group of students to those cities last summer. Here's a link to a story in the FH Times written by FHHS student Michal Suchanek describing our students' experiences in Dierdorff and Zamosc:
Music director Lynn Truby has coordinated this year's hosting activities and since the guests are all musicians, their itinerary includes several activities related to music. This year's guests are experiencing many of the things that make Fountain Hills and Arizona great places, including visits to the Town Hall, the River of Time Museum, Lake Saguaro and a cruise on the Desert Belle, and the Music Instrument Park. They're also visiting The Musical Instrument Museum (M.I.M.), Hale Centre Theatre, and the 2017 Superstition Showdown band competition. They're attending classes at the high school, enjoying time with their student hosts and host families, and working on a musical performance project. Next Monday and Tuesday our German guests are traveling to the Grand Canyon, Williams, Sedona, and Camp Verde.
Providing youth with experiences in international affairs and citizen-to-citizen diplomacy is an important part of Sister City programs. These types of student exchanges are often the first opportunity that youth have to travel abroad, and the experience of being a guest rather than a tourist is one that helps them develop maturity and cross-cultural understanding. Educational exchanges like these provide young people with opportunities to develop professional skills under the umbrella of citizen diplomacy, and it is not uncommon for participants to describe their exchange as "a life-changing experience." For our guests from Germany and our students who traveled to Europe last year, as well as a new group of FHHS students who will visit Dierdorff in the summer of 2018, I hope the Sister Cities Student Exchange is exactly such a life-changing experience.
Respectfully,
Patrick Sweeney, Ed.D.
Superintendent
