T.C. Williams High School Senior Frederick Delawie has been awarded the prestigious Congress-Bundestag Scholarship to study in Germany this fall. Delawie is the first student from T.C. Williams to have been selected to receive this honor.
The Congress-Bundestag Program was created in 1983 as a way to strengthen ties between Germany and the United States through citizen diplomacy. Designed for highly motivated high school students who want to immerse themselves in German culture and language, the program provides an opportunity for students to live with a host family and attend a German high school over a 10-month period.
Delawie, who will graduate from T.C. Williams in June, has no hesitations about doing a bonus year of high school. He feels that what he stands to gain far outweighs college deferment.
This experience offers me to the opportunity to become fluent in German and to gain a better understanding of German culture than I would otherwise have, possibly at any time in my life, especially because it’s free now.” said Delawie.
Although Delawie is a little nervous about living with a new family and speaking German with native speakers, he trusts the process to help him prepare. He will work through a four week -long immersion program in Richmond before heading off to Germany. He is thankful for current technology that will enable him to keep in touch with friends and family.
My friends would be leaving and I would be leaving to go off to college next year anyway, so I’ll just be transitioning to something different than originally planned,” Delawaie said
School and life in Germany will certainly be different. According to Delawaie they do not have school sports teams, for instance, but have private clubs instead. They have different ways of teaching and learning involving tracks, which he is curious to learn more about. And they are many social and cultural differences. He is prepared for a more structured home environment in Germany, where there are rules like ‘no mowing lawns on Sundays,’ and laws that regulate noise.
His German teachers Herr Levine and Frau Mayer-Harding of the past four years are proud of Fred’s achievement.
As one of my best students, Fred is a motivated language learner. He is a risk-taker who isn’t afraid to experiment with the grammar structures and vocabulary of a new language. He always works at applying the material learned in class to real-life situations. He also gets along well with others and has no problem adjusting to challenges. At this point in his life, I feel that he is ready to go over to Germany to put his language skills to use in an authentic setting,” said Adam Levine.
Through this experience, he will gain new insights into German social, economic and political life and current affairs around the globe, which will be quite relevant to his college studies. After returning from Germany, Delawie will be attend the University of Maryland in 2018, where he will study aerospace engineering and international relations. He hopes to someday work with other countries in space.