Exchange partner:

School No. 223 is located in the Kirovsky district, that means in the Southwest of St. Petersburg, Russia. The middle school currently has 480 students and 58 teachers. It is a school with in-depth German lessons from grade 2. [http://www.innkruglova.narod.ru/deutschunterricht.htm]

Target group:

The exchange groups on both sides usually consist of 25 people, that means 23 students and two teachers in company. The participants are recruited from different age and class grades. A special feature of the German exchange group is that some parents, alumni and friends of AVS also travel with them.

 

Participation:

  • Preparation of the exchange by the group (organisation, crash course in Russian)

Goals:

The goals are of course very diverse. In addition to general goals such as contributing to international understanding, reducing prejudices on both sides, improving language skills or getting to know another culture etc., some concrete goals can also be mentioned here that relate to the project work, such as the fundamental reprocessing of a historical conflict (2005), the artistic design of postcards for the 2006 World Cup or the creation of a new project-related website (2009).

Duration:

  • The exchange meetings take place every year around the first of May. The groups stay with their hosts for about 10 days. The flight time from Hamburg to St. Petersburg is about two hours (for 1400 km).

Costs:

There are costs for the journey to and from St. Petersburg (flight/bus transfer) as well as for the extensive cultural programme. AVS exchange participants should expect to pay about 500 euros per person for their stay in St. Petersburg.

However, the Foundation for German-Russian Youth Exchange can reduce the costs for participants by about one third if – as recently – the application for a for a topic-oriented project work was successful. ( DRJA Foundation)