Travel through Germany and visit Belgium and France as you learn about international politics and gain fascinating insights into the European Union.
Peace, Politics, & Human Rights
Leadership
Language
Homestay
As you travel throughout Germany and across national borders, you will spend time in Frankfurt, Berlin, Niederalteich, Brussels, Cologne, Bonn, Munich, and Strasbourg, France. Your Experiment begins with a group orientation in Frankfurt, a global hub for commerce, culture, education, and more, where you will begin taking German language classes.
Continue to the region of Bavaria, where you’ll meet your host family and share in their daily life during your homestay. Attend school with German students to experience local high school culture and spend a fun-filled day with your group completing a treasure hunt in nearby Munich.
Travel to Strasbourg, France, the seat of the European Parliament and where all votes take place, and visit the European Quarter. Then continue to Brussels, Belgium, the seat of the Nobel Peace Prize–winning European Union (E.U.), where you will visit the European Commission and explore the E.U.’s institutional structure. Return to Germany to visit the 2,000-year-old city of Cologne, where you will continue language classes and see the awe-inspiring Kölner Dom, a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Your program will wrap up in Berlin, Germany’s capital and bustling cultural center. You will begin with a tour of the city’s important sites, including the Bundestag (Germany’s parliament). You’ll also attend workshops on the structure of the E.U., including competencies, tasks, and stakeholders, and a seminar on European asylum politics to learn about the current refugee situation on the continent.
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Orientation in Frankfurt
During the orientation period, you and your group will stay at a centrally located youth guest house in Frankfurt
Homestay in Niederalteich
During this period, you will stay in the home of a family.
Thematic Focus in Cologne, Brussels, Belgium and Strasbourg, France
Thematic Focus in Berlin
During this period, you and your group will stay at a centrally located youth guest house in Berlin.
Reflection and Wrap-up in Berlin
During this period, you and your group will stay at a centrally located youth guest house in Berlin.
Departure
Please note: This itinerary is only a sample and is subject to change. Because of factors such as group size and availability of in-country offerings such as festivals, your experience — including sites visited and the number of days spent in each location — may differ somewhat from the one presented above.
Silvia Weko has moved every 2.5 years on average since birth, can’t say exactly where she is from, and is happy that way. She has lived in London, Paris, Berlin, and a German village next to Poland (Döbern). Her odd jobs to pay for travel have included tutor, housekeeper, personal assistant, and ice skate guard. She received her BA in international studies and German in May 2014, and she hopes to eventually pursue a master’s in education. Silvia’s on-campus jobs while in college included coordinating the German House, working as a teacher assistant, and facilitating the Language in Motion program. She loves learning new languages and practicing her French and German with exchange students. If Silvia is not in the kitchen making something elaborate and vegetarian, you can usually find her hiking or writing poetry.
Tessa graduated from the University of Colorado, Boulder, in 2013 with a degree in women’s and gender studies. Having caught the travel bug at a young age, Tessa knew that studying abroad while in college was a must. After studying German for three years, she embarked on a six-month adventure to Regensburg, Germany. During her time in Regensburg, Tessa took part in an international language intensive course and had the incredible opportunity to study with students from all over the world. Tessa has traveled widely throughout Europe and having friends on so many different parts of the globe has greatly strengthened her wanderlust. Most recently, Tessa has served in the Great Work Apprenticeship program at Compass Montessori High School. In this work, Tessa taught high school students about social justice issues and advocated for peace education. A proud Colorado native, Tessa grew up taking advantage of all that the state has to offer. She is an outdoor enthusiast and loves hiking, camping, rock climbing, and playing Ultimate Frisbee.
As you travel around Europe you will learn in great detail the structure and layout of the EU. With the homestay experience, you become immersed in the German culture and learn what it’s like at a German high school, all while you connect with german youth. You will make lifelong friends.
--Ronnie
The group dynamic was absolutely amazing. The 14 of us came from different backgrounds with different opinions and ideas but all with a passion for politics and change-making, that made for thought-provoking discussions and debates, allowing us to constantly learn from each other and think in ways that we never had before. The relationships that I’ve made – both German and American – are ones that have helped me realize my own capabilities as a leader and truly changed my life for the better.
--Cordelia
Throughout the month I was in Germany, I learned so much and gained insight I couldn’t have gotten elsewhere. The Experiment provided a perfect balance of education, volunteer service projects and free time in which we could split up and explore the cities with a small group
--Abby
One thing I learned out of all of this is that before I was in the program I didn’t realize my full potential. I thought I could just do a few things with my life, be really good at them and that was all. What I realized after the program was that my potential, like the world and all its possibilities, is limitless and it is only as small as I think it is. Being able to live in an entirely different culture (two really) and eat their food and speak their language and make friends with them and use their money and use their transportation systems, see their monuments, and breathe their air is something I will never forget as well as all the people I have met and the life friends I have made and the experiences we shared. I will always be grateful for and remember [this].
--Richard
My favorite part of the trip has to be the homestay. Bavaria also has to be my favorite place on the trip. That area of the country is absolutely beautiful. The rolling planes and then the Bavarian Forest rising up in the distance, it was definitely my favorite place to be. I had a wonderful time with my family, the Stockingers. The family brought me in as one of their own and I felt truly at home in their house. Everybody else was absolutely wonderful as well, and I made a few friends while I was there.
--Dennis
I’m so grateful for my opportunity to go on this trip. I have a special interest in traveling, and this experience only fed the fire that is burning within me to see the world. My group leaders were awesome, and I never found a dull moment with them. We always were talking about experiences they had had as world citizens traveling, and after hearing these stories I began to feel more and more secure in my thoughts of being a very active traveler as I grew older. All the sites, from the urban to the rural, and the people I got to know through the program were wonderful. The program exceeded all my expectations, and I’m highly grateful for the opportunity I had to partake in it.
John, Montgomery Bell Academy
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