These last two years, Spring Lake High School has been participating in a Dutch Exchange Program thanks to staff member and Director of Communications, David Theune. This program allows students from Alkmaar, Netherlands to travel to Spring Lake for 20 days and live with families in the area. In exchange, the students who hosted them get to travel to Alkmaar to live with those families, tour the city, and so much more!

The Dutch students get to learn about culture in the United States as well as see and tour Spring Lake which many call home. This allows students to gain exposure to different cultures and have a better understanding of how other countries live and operate.

Theune co-created this program with another teacher from the Netherlands who was equally as ambitious as he was. Theune lived in the Netherlands in 2019 with his family and fell in love with the country.  He did a lot of podcasting work to share the Dutch culture with Spring Lake when he returned after earning a Fulbright Distinguished Award for teaching. His hopes were to create a culturally immersive experience for the Dutch students here in Spring Lake.

The program has been running for the last two years, and in order to get involved all students need to do is apply. This process begins with teacher recommendations that take students through the most desired characteristics of what they look for when picking which students will participate in the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. These characteristics are mindfulness, educational curiosity, and positivity through challenging times.

Then, the applications are anonymously assessed, and the applicants are chosen. They will fill out a profile to match with their Dutch counterparts and begin communications with that family several months before they officially meet. The Dutch students visit in late May, and Spring Lake students travel in mid-June.

“A common thought is that they get to see the culture from within, not just looking at it from the outside,” Theune said regarding what they hope to see the students gain from the experience.

The program is more than a tourism trip to see the Netherlands, it is an immersive experience that students can learn from and understand the different cultures and privileges that might commonly be overlooked. One student said, “This exchange trip fundamentally changed me as a person. It not only allowed me to make connections with people I would have never met otherwise, it also allowed me to expand my knowledge of the world, and become more culturally aware.”

As of right now, there is no end in sight to the program and it will continue as long as it makes sense. The support of the community in Spring Lake is one reason the program has and will continue to run smoothly.

Theune has created this program to help educate students in a cultural experience like no other, and the Spring Lake community thanks him for pouring into the education of students and going above and beyond for them at Spring Lake High School!