Mehlville Students Share School Spirit with Germany

Three students shot a video about school spirit, sports and dance to show pen pals in Cologne, Germany, about life in America.

German students Maddie Gollihur, Brian Phelan and Meredith Meyer got the idea from their teacher, Cheryll Bowman, who lived in Germany for a year.

"They don’t have pep rallies, they don’t have cheerleaders, they don’t have football teams," Gollihur said she learned from her teacher. "They don’t have school spirit the way we do."

So the three teamed up to demonstrate school spirit at MHS, showing the student section at games, the Pantherettes and step team at a pep rally and even a dance routine from some football players. The students said our style of dance might make their German peers "drop their jaws."

"It’s a lot more conservative, the way they dance" in Germany, Phelan said.

They haven’t heard back from their German partner school, but the exchange program only started this semester. Bowman’s 22 German 3 students also exchange letters with German students.

While Golllihur would never want to give up her experiences at high school football games, she said she thinks German students are "a lot more prepared for the future" because their schools focus on academics rather than sports and activities.

"Pretty much in high school they already know what they are doing with their life," she said.

Phelan, Meyer and Gollihur all said they chose to take German over French or Spanish because their siblings took the language before them.

"It just makes sense, and it’s very similar to English," Meyer said.

Gollihur, whose family is German, will travel in Munich, Hamburg and Austria this summer.

"I have that as a part of my culture," she said. "It’s been around me my whole life."