Parent Teacher Magazine Union County Public Schools Sept/Oct 2015 | Page 6

CATA student returns home after a year in Germany

Cameron Dion will begin her senior year
at Central Academy of Technology and Arts
with a new skill – speaking fluent German.
She spent the past year as a foreignexchange student living with a host family
in Papenburg, Germany. She returned home
June 21. One of only 50 high school students
in the Southeast and one of only 250 across
the United States, Cameron was chosen
through the Congress-Bundestag Youth
Exchange (CBYX.)
The yearlong experience was a suggestion
from her mom, Kimberly Dion, a guidance
counselor at Sun Valley Middle School.
“I had many sleepless nights, just
struggling with the reality that she was
going to be gone,” Kimberly said. “I thought
I was going to be grief-stricken. I did miss
her and had my moments where I did cry,
but I had this peace about it. I knew it was
the best thing for her.”
Cameron only had one semester of
German prior to being chosen, but her
German teacher at CATA, Danilo Loor, wasn’t
concerned about her lack of fluency. “The
fastest way to learn a foreign language is
through immersion,” he said. “Being fluent in
German is not a prerequisite to the program.”
Loor also had first-hand knowledge of
this type of experience, as he also studied
a year in Germany as a foreign exchange
student while in college.
“For me, it was sort of like seeing
myself all over again,” he said of Cameron’s
experience. “I think I helped her because I
was able to offer personal insight as to what
Cameron Dion, 17 at right, a senior at CATA was a
it was going to be like. I made sure I talked
foreign exchange student in Papenburg, Germany.
to her about the things that were going to
She is pictured with other foreign exchange
be difficult, like homesickness and culture
students from around the world, all studying a
shock. I made sure that she heard all sides
year in Germany.
and what to expect.”
Cameron arrived in Germany in mid
“I couldn’t have managed
September. “I thought, I didn’t need to study German. I know plenty, without Skype and WhatsApp
but when I got there, it was rough,” she said. “I was under the
Messenger,” her mom, Kimberly
impression all Germans knew English. They didn’t.”
said. “I could send voice
Her host mother, Petra Brand, was a speech therapist and a single messages, record video. If I
mom, with an 8-year-old second grader, Jona. Petra spoke a little
hadn’t had that, if I only had
English, but Jona did not.
Cameron Dion, 17, a senior at
snail-mail and long distance
“In the beginning, it was really tough,” Cameron said. “ I didn’t
CATA, enjoys an evening with her
calls, I would have really
host sister, Jona, 8, in Germany.
know the language and it was a lot harder to integrate into the
suffered. We still missed her,
culture and a new family than I thought. The first couple of months
but I could at least see her in personvia Skype.”
were terrible. My host sister didn’t speak any English, so I couldn’t
Papenburg, Germany, is about the size of Waxhaw. Like most
communicate with her. In school, the kids in my class were scared to
Germans, everywhere Cameron went, she had to ride her bicycle or
talk to me. They thought I would think I was better than everyone,
take a city bus. There were no school buses.
because I was from America, so they were intimidated; and I was
Culturally, one of the first things Cameron noticed was at
intimidated by them. It was really difficult the first three months.”
mealtime. “At home (in America), I just grab a banana and run out
Cameron said she was also very homesick. “I couldn’t even think
the door; but in Germany, we had to be downstairs at 7 a.m. sharp,
about my parents without tearing up, but then I had less and less
and set the table. And then we had to eat together every day before
time to think about it,” she said, adding that she would Skype her
we left for school.”
parents a couple of times a week in the beginning.

4 • Sept/Oct 2015 • Parent Teacher Magazine