Brewster High Schooler to Spend Year in Germany [VIDEO]

• Name: Adrienne Blaser
• School: (BHS)
• Accomplishment: Winning a competitive scholarship to study abroad
• Key to Awesomeness: Ambition

Between studying German language and packing for an international trip, summer break has been busier than usual for Southeast resident Adrienne Blaser.

The 16-year-old student is slated to say goodbye to friends and family next week when she leaves Southeast for a year-long exchange program.

Blaser applied for and was selected as a recipient of a Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange (CBYX) scholarship, which covers a year of study and cultural immersion in Germany through the U.S. Department of State and Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Roughly 50 students in the Northeast received a CBYX scholarship this year.

"I figured out a few years ago that I like languages," Blaser said. She has been taking Chinese lessons on Saturdays for the last few years, but had never studied German before she was accepted into the program. "I started learning some German this summer so I wouldn't be lost when I get there."

Blaser said she is looking forward to meeting new people and furthering her knowledge of the language over the next 12 months.

"This program is really good because you re not just going to a country and coming back and living the rest of your life. It kind of goes on. You go back and try to teach other people what you learned in Germany," Adrienne said.

After a brief orientation in Washington, DC, Adrienne will fly to Frankfurt and then travel to the city of Karlsruhe, where she will spend a month studying German intensively. Then she will move to the smaller city of Karlsbad, in southern Germany, and stay with a local family and attend the local high school.

In January, she and the other exchange students in the program will travel to Berlin to meet with officials with the Bundestag, the German parliament.

Because of the program, Adrienne will miss her senior year at Brewster High School.

"The only thing I had to think about was that I won't get to walk at graduation," she said. "And then that I would miss my friends. But the people who are my friends here, who are really my friends will still be my friends."

She added that she expects to stay in touch with her friends through the Internet and Skype.

BHS Assistant Principal Elizabeth Higgins said that Blaser's situation is definitely not a common one for students who are wrapping up their high school careers.

"It is the first time for sending a student abroad for senior year that I know of, at least," she said, adding that Blaser is a "bright and involved" teen, who is involved with the National Honor Society and other extracurricular activities.

Once Blaser was accepted and decided to move forward with the program, administrators and school staff helped in arranging for any senior year tests to be taken ahead of time and in preparing for the college application process, Higgins said.

Blaser will be abroad when students typically start visiting schools and deciding where they will head the following fall. She plans to apply to both state schools and private colleges, and will most likely choose whichever school gives her the best offer, financially speaking.

"I am getting through a lot of it ahead of time," she said. "I need to get a lot done before I leave."