Dear Friends of the AIB,
It is hard to imagine that our Academy is now turning 20 years old. I
have been with the AIB from the very beginning and I tend to look back
at the past with nostalgia and see how the times have changed. But let's
look at it seriously: did things change over all the years? Or are they
the same today as they were before?
Let's take Bonn, for instance. When the AIB started in 1993, we still
had the German Parliament here. Filled with pride for our city, we led
our students through the Plenary Chamber. Today, the Parliament is in
Berlin and the old Plenary Chamber in Bonn is a working place, getting
ready to perform as a Congress center. Did Bonn change? Yes, on the
surface, but the heart and soul of the city did not. For our students,
Bonn is still the place where nice people live, where people open their
homes to become host parents, where a kind of Rhenish friendliness and
amiability makes life here easy and enjoyable.
In the larger scope of history, 20 years is not a lot, even by
American standards. The difference between Americans and Germans is that
Americans consider 100 years a long time and Germans think that 100
miles is a long distance! So, is there a reason to celebrate? Indeed,
some of our young guests suggested to party harder when we turn 21!
However, all this time, all these 20 years, young American students
came into the city and change took place in them, change took place in
the host families, and change took place in us. Each student, when they
return home, leaves a small part of themselves here in Bonn. They take
home the memories of their times abroad, of the families who helped them
grow and deal with the world abroad. They take home a new perspective
to share with their friends and families at home.
I tried to calculate how many students have come through our doors since our first program. The number is around 7,000.
7,000 times young students got on their way, full of expectation,
full of excitement and nervousness, full of pleasant anticipation and
advice from their parents and relatives. 7,000 times they arrived in a
foreign country which appeared very strange at first glance, where
instead of donuts, they found 'Brötchen' and 'Teilchen', where they have
'leckere Döner' instead of hamburgers, and where you can order a beer
without showing your ID.
All these students were confronted with differences, some good, some
bad. But these differences made them change their perceptions of the
world. Each incident--whether it was the small obstacles in their daily
lives, like not understanding the waiter in the restaurant, or whether
it was the big challenges, like getting sick and visiting the
hospital--helped the students develop a mix of personal growth and
development. The changes in the students are often small or subtle; the
loud students become a little more quiet, the quiet ones become a little
more outspoken; the shy become more confident and the self-confident
become a little more reluctant. But nevertheless, change and growth had
occurred.
At this point, I would like to thank god in all seriousness, that
over 20 years--besides having smaller health problems and minor
accidents--we never had any serious incident. This is a true reason to
be thankful!
Together with some 7,000 American students, and the same number of
host families in Bonn, who listened with patience to 1 million
questions, who explained 100,000 times how the German garbage separation
works, who waited 100,000 times on their students because they were
late for dinner, and who had an overabundance of patience and a lot of
fun when they laughed with their guests about the newest blunder. It is
still exciting to us, even after 20 years, when new students arrive at
the AIB. They hang around, shifting from side to side, nervously
expecting the arrival of their host family, which as it turns out,
usually feels just as nervous for getting to know a 'crazy American'.
And it is still touching at the end, when saying good bye, the students
twiddle with their luggage trying to delay the moment of departure, they
hug their host mom as she fights back her tears, while the 7 year old
daughter cries loudly because she loses her elder sister!
7,000 times students flew back to Texas, to sunny California, to
Pennsylvania or wherever they came from – back to their families – but
they never arrived home. They never got back to the land of hamburgers
and Starbucks, of baseball and College football, to the home as they
knew it before they left; they had become global citizens. Time and time
again, parents went to pick up their son or daughter from the airport
and realized that they had lost their small child and had gained a new
partner in life.
The great Greek philosopher Heraclitus said, “There is nothing as
constant as change”. You have to be open for new experiences and not
only be alerted, but expose yourself to them. My grandfather Martin used
to say the same thing, but in his own words: “Taking a bath is not
enough. You need to change the water from time to time.”
I want to thank all the students who still keep Bonn and the AIB in
good memory! It was a good time with you! I want to thank the host
families who opened their homes and became our friends. I want to thank
my colleagues over all the years for going above and beyond and being
the fearless leaders and human beings that you are (see underneath). I
am proud and thankful to have shared these years with all of you! We had
a gorgeous time together!
Your Rainer Zäck
