Press Releases

10.06.10

Salem-WRA exchange year

The new regulation of eight years instead of nine to complete high school means for some students in Germany more pressure and leaves them at school with time spent on academic studies only. However, education is more than just taking care of academics. Education includes active involvement in Art, Music, Theater, Athletics, service to others, and experience abroad - which cannot be achieved by simply completing an academic curriculum. Educators at Schule Schloss Salem, a prestigious German boarding school, and parents are concerned that everything extra-curricular, which they deem so important will be sacrificed.

Therefore, Schule Schloss Salem introduces for the coming school year a voluntary extracurricular year to fit within the framework of the now eight year sequence: the Salem-WRA exchange year. The offer addresses students who have completed their 10th grade year and have successfully obtained the “Mittlere Reife” and are also accepted to the next level the two year course system to obtain the “Allgemeine Hochschulreife” (Abitur), which allows them to apply to universities. The goal of the exchange year is to broaden the horizon of young and ambitious students who want to increase their proficiency in foreign languages, to prepare intensively for the course system and wish to be deeply integrated into the community and the values that Salem and Western Reserve Academy promote.

Students who are enrolled into the exchange year program will attend Western Reserve Academy, a well established American boarding school, from Mid August until end of February. At WRA the students will work with an academic advisor, participate in all aspects of the boarding school community and improve their proficiency in the English language. The students have the opportunity to select courses in order to focus on fields of academic interest, and to prepare extensively for the demands of the course system when they go back to Salem. Upon their return in March, the students will spend the rest of the academic year at Schule Schloss Salem. They receive instruction in small groups and write a research paper. They receive regular feedback on their academic achievements and will work with an academic advisor, who provides weekly individual counseling. At the same time, the participants integrate with their future classmates at Salem through participation in numerous service opportunities and the wide range of programs in athletics and the arts.

Upon successful completion of the exchange year, the participants join the course system at Salem for the following year. They will be well prepared for academic rigor, have acquired a high level of proficiency in English and gained an international boarding school experience. After receiving the “Abitur” at Salem two years later they have a wide variety of career choices in post secondary education and professional fields.