In Pursuit of Connection
250 exchange stories

GAPP 250 Exchange Stories © GAPP

You remember them. The family that set a place at the table before they even knew you. The student who showed up nervous and left with a second home. The teacher who opened a door you didn't know was there. The host parent who still calls, years later, just to catch up. GAPP exchanges are built on people who say yes. Who share their tables, their cities, their everyday lives, and who know that trust, given freely, is how a stranger becomes a friend. That kind of connection is civic engagement at its most joyful and its most human. Humans of GAPP: As the United States turns 250, we are collecting 250 stories from our German-American exchange community. Every exchange leaves a mark. Add yours to the 250.

About the project

We are all familiar with that famous line from the Declaration of Independence: the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. At GAPP, we borrow pursuit and add something inseparable from it: connection. Because we are convinced that without connection, happiness simply does not exist. Which is why our theme is In Pursuit of Connection.

This year, the United States turns 250 and we are on a mission to gather 250 stories from our community before November 15, when most of this year's exchanges come to a close. Students, alumni, host families, teachers across Germany and the United States: Show us the dinner tables where you figured out how to talk to each other. The classrooms. The cities you explored on weekends you still think about. The goodbyes at airports that still sting a little, even years later. Maybe you participated in the eighties. Maybe the nineties. Maybe last semester. Perhaps you are going on a GAPP exchange this year. It does not have to be a perfect story. It does not have to have a neat ending. It just needs to be yours. Someone out there is still deciding whether to go on a GAPP exchange. Show them what awaits.

Every submission is automatically entered into our raffle once the project closes, for a chance to win one of 10 GAPP goodie (swag) packages.

This project is a joint initiative of the German American Partnership Program (GAPP) Inc. in the US and the Pädagogischer Austauschdienst (PAD) in Germany.

Eligibility

ANY GAPP HUMAN.
A current student. A teacher. A host parent. A school administrator. An alum. No matter the year.

GOT A PHOTO?
The highlight of your exchange. A moment that stood out. Something you will never forget. Candid over posed, always.

TELL YOUR STORY.
A short personal story describing the photo. What was happening. Why you still think about it. 400 characters max.

INSPIRE OTHERS.
Your story could be one of 250. A student still deciding. A host family not yet sure. Show them what awaits.

GOT A PHOTO? GOT A STORY?

Every exchange leaves a mark. Add yours to the 250.

I'm ready to submit

From the US and Germany, for all of us

1. (2026)

Seneca & Carson from Aiken, South Carolina to Munich

The woman in the middle? That's Seneca from Aiken, SC. This spring, she got her first passport and crossed the Atlantic for the very first time, bringing her younger son Carson along. Eight years ago, her older son Jahleel (second from left) traveled to Germany as a GAPP exchange student and found a second family in the Schmidtborns. The friendship never faded. This spring, the two families finally took a picture together on Marienplatz, Munich. Seneca and host mom Dorothea became the kind of friends who couldn't stop talking to each other. Pictured here with father Tim and younger son Nikklas. None of it exists without Jahleel.

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2. (1985)

Daniel from Los Angeles to Goslar, Niedersachsen

My choice of German as a lifelong passion and career began with GAPP. Unforgettable experiences like this with my host mother at the East-West German border (pictured here) are the reason why. In 1985, this Mexican-American kid from LA wasn't aware he was experiencing history or how life-changing those three weeks in Germany would become. 40 years on I know my life would have gone a very different way without them.

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