THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, December 2, 1994 TAG: 9412010187
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 22 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY GARY EDWARDS, CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: Medium: 76 lines
Five years ago, Martin Kuschke couldn't even travel freely in his hometown. This weekend he will fly thousands of miles across the Atlantic to return to Berlin after spending the past 10 weeks in Hampton Roads.
The 18-year-old, who lived on the eastern, or communist, side of the Berlin Wall before it fell, spent his American tour working at the Navy Public Works Center in Norfolk.
Kushchke was among 15 German technical students who arrived here Sept. 30 to participate in the Cultural Fellows Program, a joint effort of local vocational-technical schools and businesses.
``This is our eighth year in the program,'' said Bill Graham, school-to-work transition coordinator for the Virginia Beach Vocational-Technical Educational Center. ``The program has expanded to the Norfolk and Chesapeake schools this year.
``Students spend three weeks of classroom study at Vo-Tech and work for six weeks.''
Kuschke attended the Virginia Beach Vo-Tech center first and then went to work in a machine shop at the Norfolk Naval Base. Students live with host families during their stay.
Kuschke will complete his apprentice program in Germany in February 1996. He is learning industrial mechanics with ABB, a Swedish-owned company with a plant in Berlin.
Kuschke was 13 when the Berlin Wall fell. He said that his life is not very different now than it was before.
``Can move around more freely,'' he said. ``Not different other than that.''
He did note, however, a major difference between Germany and America.
``It is so big,'' he said of the United States. ``You can drive so far. Lot bigger here. I like it.''
Kuschke and his countrymen were presented certificates of recognition at an awards luncheon Nov. 21 at the Greenbrier Country Club in Chesapeake. They will return to their homeland Sunday.
The Cultural Relations Fellows Program was founded in 1980 by West German industrialist Dr. Kurt A. Korber and functions reciprocally. American technical students spend 10 weeks in Germany each year.
The program operates under the auspices of the Korber Foundation in Hamburg, Germany, and the Ameurop Cultural Relations Foundation of Richmond. The foundations are non-profit and finance the program with no cost to the public school systems. Ameurop selected Virginia Beach as a satellite site.
The German students who recently completed the program received both cultural and work benefits. The students lived with host families and visited many area attractions when not studying or working.
They toured Jamestown Festival Park, boarded the aircraft carrier Roosevelt, enjoyed a picnic at Northwest River Park, watched a play at the Wells Theatre and attended an Old Dominion University basketball game.
Stefani Roepstorff, 19, lives and works as a technical business administration apprentice in Munich with Philip Morris. She spent her American work stint at Stihl Inc. in Virginia Beach. The company is a German-owned maker of chain saws, so she felt more at home on the job, she said. Off the job, though, was a different story.
``It's a totally different culture,'' she said. ``Sometimes, funny; sometimes, not. I'm more independent in Germany. Here. I'm dependent upon my host family for transportation. At home, I would take public transportation.''
She learned about blueprinting at Stihl, she said, a skill she had not mastered at home. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by GARY EDWARDS
Martin Kuschke, 18, a German technical student here for a work/study
program, will complete his apprenticeship in industrial mechanics in
Berlin.
by CNB