Centennial High School sophomore Lucari is looking forward to spending his junior year of high school in Nienburg, September 3, 2015 to June 22, 2016.
Lucari will be hosted by the family of his German exchange partner, Simon who was in Las Cruces in October 2014.
Albert-Schweitzer-Schule principal Dr. Ralf Weghöft welcomes the exchange which is being facilitated by “Las Cruces-Nienburg Sister Cities Affiliation” and its German counterpart, “Freundeskreis Las Cruces-Nienburg”. Several coordinators and facilitators are offering their assistance in Germany: Thomas Volkhausen from Albert-Schweitzer-Schule who, together with his colleague Robert Kerlin, brought a group of 16 Albert-Schweitzer-Schule students to Las Cruces and Centennial High School this past October; Hedda Freese, chairperson of the “Freundeskreis Las Cruces-Nienburg” who is also a teacher at “Integrierte Gesamtschule Nienburg”; Conny Kramer from the Cultural Office, City of Nienburg. On the American side, Las Cruces-Nienburg Sister Cities founding member Ingrid Luchini is coordinating preparations for this school year abroad.
Lucari has enjoyed speaking German since he was a young child. As a ninth grader, he started taking formal German lessons in Oklahoma State University’s GermanOnline program where he is currently on level 3. He says: “My family and I hosted German exchange students several times, three of whom are from Nienburg. I had been thinking for quite some time about being an exchange student myself. This most recent hosting experience opened my eyes to the great value of study abroad and strengthened my resolve to spend the 2015/16 school year at Albert-Schweitzer-Schule in Nienburg.”
