The Paderborn teacher training programme is further expanding its cooperation with schools in the USA: As part of a project week, teachers and professors from Kennesaw (Georgia) visited the cathedral city to gain insights into local educational work and develop new exchange formats. In addition to Paderborn University, the Friedrich Spee Comprehensive School, Elsen Comprehensive School and Pelizaeus Gymnasium in Paderborn are also involved.
Specifically, the new collaboration involves the mutual exchange of pupils, students and teachers. The primary schools in the Marietta School District in Georgia will enable students from Paderborn University, for example, to complete their internship semester there in future. In February 2026, 30 students and six teachers from the American school district will also come to Paderborn for a fortnight. The following April, 15 students from Friedrich-Spee-Gesamtschule and 15 students from Pelizaeus Gymnasium will go to Kennesaw with their teachers. Elsen Comprehensive School is also organising a student exchange. Accompanying projects such as an "afternoon club" and regular virtual meetings strengthen intercultural education.
"While the partnership with Kennesaw State University in Georgia and our English Department at Paderborn University has existed for many years, the project with the local centre for teacher training, the Bagwell College of Education, and the schools of the Marietta School District is still in its infancy," explains project manager Dr Katharina von Elbwart. "We are therefore all the more pleased that we have already been able to develop so many further opportunities for cooperation during our first 'Professional Development Week' on site."
Interested schools wanted
Secondary schools from Paderborn and the surrounding area that are also interested in hosting American students for an internship semester and setting up an exchange of teachers and students are invited to contact the team at the Department of English Language Teaching by email: katharina.elbwart@upb.de
This text was translated automatically.
