Linnea Andersson, a 15-year-old sophomore at Wiscasset Middle High School, stands outside the Wiscasset Parks and Recreation building on May 6. Andersson has been accepted into the selective Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange, which will offer her a chance to study in Germany for over nine months. (Evan Houk photo)
Linnea Andersson, a 15-year-old sophomore at Wiscasset Middle High School, is set to travel to Germany this summer for a selective exchange program.
Andersson will stay in Germany for over nine months as part of the Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange, a dynamic and immersive exchange program jointly offered by the U.S. and German governments.
Andersson said by email that the opportunity is going to change her life.
“Finding out I got in was the happiest moment for me. I was in tears of happiness, for me this was my long term dream coming true,” Andersson said.
She said she is both excited and nervous for the opportunity, as it will be the first time she has been away from home and on her own for that amount of time.
“Now it’s settling in that I’m not going to see my parents and my friends or important people in my life for such a long time,” Andersson said.
She said the program has a less than 2% acceptance rate and accepted only three people from Maine this year. She has always wanted to participate in the youth exchange ever since she found out about it in eighth grade.
“You’re supposed to be a youth ambassador to your country,” Andersson said.
Andersson grew up in Wiscasset. She said she has some experience with traveling to Sweden, where her father is from.
She enjoys participating in track, volunteering, and swimming and working as a lifeguard at the Wiscasset Parks and Recreation building. Andersson is on the high school swim team, The Unsinkables.
But playing trumpet is her passion, something she has been doing for six years.
“I spend a lot of time playing my trumpet,” Andersson said.
She has recently upgraded instruments and has started learning the technique of jazz improvisation, considering trumpet playing as a career.
“There’s a whole method to it,” Andersson said.
Andersson believes her essays were a strong part of her application for the Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange, particularly the essay describing her three weeks on the Appalachian Trail in the 100 Mile Wilderness with Chewonki.
She also thinks her leadership skills and initiative shown during a group interview helped cement her place in the program.
“I never said ‘if I get in,’ I always said ‘when I’m in Germany, before I even knew,” Andersson said. “I wanted to be positive about the situation.”
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