The GAPP Exchange involves eight students and one chaperone who travel to Max-Born-Gymnasium in Germany, for three weeks. These individuals come from in and around a town called Backnang in the southwestern federal state of Baden-Wuerttemberg. 

The college preparatory school, Max-Born-Gymnasium, opened in 1970. The school promotes speaking in both German and English and has been PCHS’s partner for this exchange since 2012.

The GAPP Exchange is open to any PCHS sophomore, junior, or senior German student. The group size ranges anywhere from 12 to 18 students. Students leave during June or July, arriving during the German school year, whereas the German exchange students come to Pekin during the American school year. 

PCHS German teacher Dale Holzwarth has been in charge of this program since 2009. 

Holzwarth shared, “The first time I took a group to Germany was the summer of 2010, and it didn’t work out because the teacher from Germany was on maternity leave, and it fell through.”

The GAPP Exchange has had many setbacks, but through hard work, it kept going.

Holzwarth explained, “The program started back up in 2014, and I took students in 2016 and 2018. We couldn’t attend in 2020 because of COVID-19. We started the program back up in 2025, and now we’re crossing our fingers that all goes well.”

PCHS Senior Jadealynn Eddyto is excited to host one of the GAPP students. She shared that when she was in Germany she “loved exploring Germany and the neighboring countries.” 

Eddyto went on to explain that when she was there, her “host family always gathered plastic bottles which allowed them to go to a grocery store and turn the bottles in for money. It was lovely seeing how much care the citizens subconsciously had for their environment and cleanliness, something I wish America prioritized more.”

This experience has benefited students, showing them the German culture and allowing them to use their foreign language skills in real time. The GAPP exchange program is a major advantage that PCHS students are lucky enough to have at their school.