Goodbye America, Höllo Germany! Etowah freshman, Bryce Jeffrey, recently won a grant to go study abroad in Germany for 11 months.

“I had always loved Germany and its culture. My parents used to go every year, and they would come back with amazing stories and experiences, so I decided to apply and experience them for myself,” Bryce Jeffrey, freshman, said.

Jeffrey submitted an online application in December and received an email a month later telling him he was selected to be a semifinalist. In the beginning of March, he spent a weekend at a hotel in Atlanta undergoing a long interview process. While he was there, he met other semi-finalists, and they all participated in group activities to see how well they would adjust to leaving. Finally, a 45-minute, two-person interview determined whether he would be able to manage living abroad.

“I think they really wanted people who could handle and grow as people during the trip, and also be a good ambassador and spread the word of this scholarship to other students,” Jeffrey said.

After a month of waiting, Jeffrey received the phone call informing him that he was a finalist.

“I think in the long run, it will help me understand better who I am as a person and my limits,” Jeffrey said.

Jeffrey flies up to Washington, D.C., on August 2nd to meet the Department of State, as well as the other finalists, and then all fly out to Frankfurt, Germany, August 4. There, Jeffrey, as well as the other finalists, will attend a month-long language and cultural immersion camp. He will return sometime around mid-June of 2018. He is also not allowed to leave at any time of the year, and cannot have any visitors until after the New Year.

From September to June, he will be staying with a host family that has been picked specifically for him. He will be experiencing a daily German life, culturally and linguistically.

Jeffrey has taken a year of German at E.T. Booth and one year at Etowah and expects he will pick it up even better while he is living in Germany.