Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs

CITIZEN EXCHANGES –
YOUTH PROGRAMS DIVISION
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German American Partnership Program (GAPP)

The German American Partnership Program is a high school linkage program between American high schools with German departments and secondary schools in Germany. Currently, there are approximately 760 active partnerships throughout the United States and Germany. Each year approximately 5,000 American high school students and teachers visit their partners in Germany, and 8,000 German high school students and teachers are hosted by American families and high schools.

The German government, through the Padagodischer Austausch Dienst (PAD), and the participants themselves, sponsor approximately 90% of the program. The GAPP network of school partnerships, to which the German government attaches high priority, represents one of the largest and most important people-to-people connections between the U.S. and Germany.

Since the mid-1980s, as a part of the President's Youth Exchange Initiative, the Bureau's annual contribution has been used as a travel subsidy for German participants. GAPP, Inc. works out of the Goethe House in New York.

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