Thirteen Easton Area High School students had the chance to immerse themselves in the German language they’d spent years studying in class during a recent summer trip abroad.

The 16-day trip was sponsored by the Goethe-Institut’s German American Partnership Program (GAPP), says Easton Area High School German teacher Karen Doerr, one of the chaperones.

GAPP is funded by the U.S. Department of State and the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs, according to a news release.

According to Doerr, this is the first year Easton has participated in the exchange program, which began in America in 1970.

The young travelers lived with host families in Weissenburg, a village in Bavaria. Students attended high school classes at Werner-von-Siemen Gymnasium, in Weissenburg, according to the release.

Junior Alexa Kutch, 16, of Easton, participated on the trip.

“It was the first time I’d traveled without my family to Europe, but I knew the host family would take care of me,” Kutch says of her experience abroad.

The Easton teens had sponsored their German counterparts in March, according to Doerr.

“Our kids knew the students they were staying with because they’d hosted the same students here in Easton,” Doerr explains.

A strong advocate for the exchange program, Doerr says it “promotes tolerance and acceptance.”

In Germany, students visited landmark sites including Nuremberg, Wurzburg, Rothenburg-ob-der-Tauber and Munich.

Living with their German counterparts, the Easton youth experienced a different school and study structure, more independence and a different approach to daily life, Kutch says.

“They (German teens) are a lot more independent than we are and are expected to be more adult and have more responsibilities,” Kutch says.

While Easton students are used to block scheduling, a typical German school day includes 16 different classes.

“In Easton, we have 78-minute-long classes while in Germany their classes are 45 minutes long,” Kutch explains.

Grading, performance requirements and daily ice-cream trips were other marked differences from the American experience, according to Kutch.

“We walked everywhere. We ate a lot of ice cream at different times of the day than we’re used to,” Kutch says.

She says she’d even advocate for year-round school back home.

“I know it sounds scary, but you don’t forget material. There are a lot of benefits. They have six-week breaks, (whereas) sometimes we go for months without school,” Kutch says.

Her mother, Lynn Marie Kutch, is associate professor of German studies at Kutztown University.

She says the most valuable part of the trip abroad for the Easton teens was the opportunity to live in another culture.

“It is hard to see the practicality of a foreign language in the classroom,” Lynn Kutch says. “It’s nice for them to see how people their own age live.”