We received this very nice letter from a gentleman in Germany, Arne Führer, who was a German exchange student at Sayville High School during the school year 1991/1992.  Note for classmates;  Arne’s birth surname was Schramm.

Arne now seeks an opportunity for his daughter to also come to Sayville as an exchange student.   I wanted everyone to see and think about this.  The letter has been forwarded to High School Principal Ron Hoffer and also Dr. James Bertsch of the Sayville School Board.

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Exchange year at Sayville High School in 2023/2024

Dear Mr. Brown,

I am writing to you in your capacity as Director of the Sayville Alumni Association – and I am writing from Hamburg, Germany, 30 years after having been a (German exchange) student at Sayville High School during the school year 1991/1992. Attached to this mail I am sending you some “historic documentation” of my year at Sayville High School (since then my surname has – due to marriage – changed from “Schramm” to “Führer”).

I am now 46 years old, Judge at the Regional Court of Hamburg, and a father of two, a 14-year-old girl (Ava) and an almost 12-year-old boy (Aaron).

Now my daughter Ava is expressing a strong interest in spending a High School year in the U.S. during the school year 2023/2024 and I have had the sentimental idea of how special it would be, if she had the opportunity of spending such a year at my old (albeit just for one year) “alma mater”. Such programs are organized by German organizations in cooperation with the U.S.’ local school authorities and during this process possible host families would need to be “approved” beforehand and well in advance of the beginning of the envisaged school year. It is in this context that I am writing to you with the query, if the Sayville Alumni Association has a kind of bulletin board or mailing list or other means via which a possible host family for Ava might be sought. Ava is a very social, interested and open minded girl and a good student, currently in 9th grade and with a constant A/B-average. She is especially strong in languages and studies both English and French. Apart from that, she also speaks Spanish, as she went to kindergarten for two years in Spain (during which period of time I had been appointed Judge at the European Union Intellectual Property Office) and has maintained contact with her best kindergarten friend in Spain ever since, with several visits to Spain afterwards, among which some stages of one to two weeks each at schools in Spain during German school vacations.

I would very much look forward to hearing/reading from you and appreciate any assistance in this quest.

Best wishes,

Arne Führer (né Schramm)