NEWTON Twenty high school students and their teachers, Thomas Brossmer and Gabi Throm, are returning to Newton High School for the bi-annual exchange between Newton High School and Heimschule Sankt Landolin in Ettenheim, Germany. The exchange between the two high schools, sponsored by the German-American Partnership Program (GAPP), is occuring for the third year and was started by Petra Hannig-Eisenberger, German teacher at Newton High School. Hannig-Eisenberger, a graduate of Heimschule Sankt Landolin herself, started the exchange in 2007 and since then a total of 80 German and American high schoolers have crossed the Atlantic. The Germans will be hosted by their American exchange partners between Oct. 23 and Nov. 13. The students will experience life as an American teenager in school as well as outside of school with their host families. The third week will be spent travelling to New York City and Washington together with their teachers, where the 20 German students will study American culture and history and experience the United States in person - a country they until now have only known from their textbooks and the media. The program is so popular at the German partner school that 60 students applied. The lucky students who were chosen arrived on Sunday, Oct. 23, at Newark Airport and delved into America immidiately as they got whisked away on a yellow school bus to be joined with their host families. Many interesting and new experiences await them in and around Newton like Trick-or-Treating, homecoming and a trip to Ellis Island. In June 0f 2012, Newton High School students will have the chance to be hosted by their partners in and around Ettenheim and experience three weeks in south-western Germany with a week-long trip to Berlin and Munich.