A Translation of the Newspaper Article

A new life in the country: American Nicole Thompson comes to Roetgen for a year as an exchange student. She is studying hard to quickly learn the German language.

Since 1983, young people from the United States have been offered the opportunity to apply for a scholarship via the Parliamentary Sponsorship Program (PPP) of the German Bundestag, allowing them to study in Germany for one year.  In turn, the U.S. Congress provides young Germans a year of study in America.

To date, some 20,000 students and young professionals between the ages of 15 and 24 have used this exchange program to experience first hand the daily life in the other country, via their stays with host families

Our CDU parliamentary deputy from Alsdorf, Helmut Brand, is also taking part in the PPP, and exchange students have been living with host families in our region since early August.

During the year, Herr Brandt wants to visit every "godchild" in person. In Roetgen he has now met with Nicole Thompson of California. The nearly 18-year-old Nicole is spending her exchange year with host parents Lisa Zellner-Kühnle and Rolf Kühnle.

Before serving as hosts, the Kühnles realized they had extra space in their new house in Roetgen as their own children, 23 and 20 years old, are already off to University. They viewed the thought of hosting an exchange student as a positive, as daughter Hannah had already spent a year in France.  Because of this, and based on the good experiences of friends who’d served as hosts, they recently decided to participate in the PPP program.

Back home in the US, Nicole Thompson has already completed high school and wants to major in International Studies (economy, politics, culture) while in college. Therefore she is especially interested in the study and learning of languages. She has come to Germany without any knowledge of German, so she is temporarily using English to communicate with her host parents, teachers, and classmates in her high-school in Aachen.  There she attends the 12th Grade level, where she enjoys her French class as she is already fluent in the language. However, her German proficiency does not yet allow her to completely follow lessons in more technical subjects such as History or Mathematics. But this should change quickly, since she is attending a twice-weekly German course at the VHS in Aachen.

"This is real work," acknowledges host father Rolf Kühnle, in reference to the syllabus of his protégé.

Nicole is also getting used to life in a small, rural town.  She is from Novato, a town of 52,000 that is situated in the Bay Area, near San Francisco.

According to Nicole: "Particularly on weekends, the restricted bus schedule makes it harder to get around on one’s own”, which also presents the host parents with a challenge, “but it is nevertheless good!”.

In Aachen, her contacts outside the family allow her to socialize, while the Kühnle’s son, David, also looks forward to spending time with his new “sister” while taking her under his wing.

In addition, Lisa Zellner-Kühnle and Rolf Kühnle endeavor to help bring Nicole closer to their host country and people by participating in shared activities. They’ve started this by baking a cake together and are also planning a trip to Berlin, where daughter Hannah resides.

Helmut Brandt has also endeavored to make her feel at home in her new residence. Towards that end, he brought Nicole a gift -- a picture book that details the history of the German Bundestag.

((All credit goes to Ray for the translation. Thank you!!))
Edit: Translation updated.