While most Saint Paul Academy and Summit School seniors are going to spend their next year in college, Seniors Evva Parsons and Maddie Flom-Staab will be spending the year studying in Germany. They were both winners of the Congress Bundestag Youth Exchange (CBYX). “The Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange is a scholarship that sends American students to Germany and German students here. There are three sections of the program: the Youth Exchange (15-18 year olds) is a year at a high school, the Vocational Exchange (18-19 year olds) is a year doing internships, and the Young Professionals Exchange (18-24 year olds) is a year at a university and doing an internship. I applied for all three and am doing the Vocational program and Maddie applied only to the Youth Exchange one which is what she is doing.” said Parsons.

“It’s a big intense application process with interviews and all that jazz. It was like another college application.” Flom-Staab said. The Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange is such esteemed program, that former Secretary of State and 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has said that it is so prestigious that other government sponsored exchange programs are modeled after it.“It is a prestigious program and highly competitive selection process. Students apply and based on their essays, interviews, [and] teacher recommendations, they selected for the award.” said Upper-School German teacher Jutta Crowder.

Parsons will be participating in the science oriented Vocational program. One of the main things she wants from the program is a complete immersion in German culture. “Too many of the representatives from other programs tried to reassure me by letting me know I would be with other Americans the whole time and that is not what I was looking for.” Parsons said.

This is the first time in SPA history that two students have won the award, and the third time that any SPA students have won the award in the last ten years. “The award consists of one full Academic Year in Germany – all costs [including] transportation, room and board etc. are fully covered,” said Crowder.

Parsons and Flom-Staab will be leaving late July 2015 and returning early July 2016. They will both be living with a host family and going to school in Germany for no cost. “I think living with a new family is going to be the hardest part but also what I am most excited about,” Flom-Staab said.