FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                          Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Contact: Senator Bob Odell

(603) 271-6733

GERMAN HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS VISIT THE STATEHOUSE

CONCORD – A group of almost two dozen high school students from Germany visited the Statehouse today at the invitation of Senator Bob Odell (R-Lempster).

The German young people were accompanied by students from Claremont’s Stevens High School. The two groups are involved in an exchange program that brings the German students to New Hampshire in the spring. The American youths will visit Germany and stay with their new German friends for three weeks this summer.

The German students have been in the United States for the past three weeks, staying with local families in Claremont and visiting historic sites and other places of interest in the region. At home, they attend the Leibniz Gymnasium in Altdorf, Germany.

The exchange program, coordinated in Claremont by teacher Gary Cullison, brings students from the two schools together every two years to share their homes, families and cultures.

“I think this is a wonderful program that helps create international friendships and expands the cultural understanding of young people from these two countries. If travel broadens the mind, then this is the best education we can give our young people,” Odell said.

After three weeks in each other’s company, it was impossible to pick out the Americans from the German students as they visited the Senate Chamber, he noted “which just goes to show you kids are kids everywhere.”