Back in July, Kelvin Weston was one of 65 New Zealand students interviewed by the National Adviser in German from the Goethe Institut.

Last weekend he spent Sunday and Monday competing with the final 15 candidates in Wellington. 

Yesterday we found out that Kelvin has done Otago Boys’ proud by winning a much sought after New Zealand-German Student Exchange Scholarship to Germany at the end of this year. This non-profit organisation provides scholarships enabling senior secondary school students to spend up to three months living and studying as a member of a family in another country. New Zealand students stay with families in Germany for approximately ten weeks from the end of November to early February while the German partners stay in New Zealand from June to August the following year. Students attend school in the respective countries. Scholarship winners are provided with return tickets to Germany and insurance cover. Prior to their departure for home, all scholarship winners from New Zealand and Australia meet at a camp and travel together to Bonn and Berlin. 

This is an amazing opportunity for Kelvin to not only improve his spoken German, but to widen his cultural horizons and have the ultimate authentic overseas experience. It is also a fantastic way to round off International Languages Week. Kelvin is the only student in Otago to win this level of scholarship. Here he talks in his own words about his experience.

Ein Wochenende in Wellington! Kelvin Weston Year 12

From Saturday 5th to Monday 7th of August I was immersed in a weekend of speaking German and in workshop activities at the Goethe Institut in Wellington. 

Fourteen students from around New Zealand and I had an amazing time getting to know each other and exploring  Wellington together. All “auf Deutsch”, of course! We were the finalists in the National German Olympiad. 

One of the highlights of the weekend was when we Dunedin students had our flights diverted back to Wellington when we had left on Monday night. Fortunately, we had enough "unabhängigkeit" to survive an unexpected extra night. Especially as we were put up in a nice hotel! 

Although challenging, this was a fantastic opportunity for me to practice more German and I made a lot of friends with other German students around New Zealand. I am very excited for the opportunity to travel to Germany.