Exchange Student Lange 10-29-15

Virgin Valley High School Student Naina Lange is enjoying her experience at an American high school and is a member of the VVHS cheerleading squad. Photo by Teri Nehrenz.

Virgin Valley High School (VVHS) Exchange Student Naina Lange hails from Lower Saxony which is a region of Germany where they produce the Volkswagen automobiles.

Lange holds a 2.3 grade average in Germany which is the equivalent of an American “B.”  Having just received her progress report after attending VVHS for six weeks she has a majority of ‘A’ grades in most of her classes.  Lange says, “It’s very much harder to achieve a one in Germany than it is to get an ‘A’ in American schools. Being here is like being on vacation.”

In Germany Lange takes a required curriculum of 13 classes and has no choice of the classes she takes.  There are no elective courses like in American schools and school consists only of studies with no extra- curricular courses such as sports.

Lange studies gymnastics in Germany but it is a completely separate school she attends for the sport. At VVHS she is happy to be a member of the high school sponsored cheerleading squad.

English is one of the required courses Lange takes in Germany as well as Spanish.  Lange loves the languages and although she’s not completely certain what her career path will be she’s right now leaning toward something in the linguistic field.

Lange said, “I’m very much enjoying my stay here but I’ll have to work very, very hard when I get back to make up the studies I missed while being here.”  Lange went on to explain that her visit here is just a break from her classes in Germany. She gets no credit for attending an American school, and although she’s happy for the experience, she’s going to have to repeat this year’s courses when she returns home.