Truncated year abroad doesn’t faze U-Hi senior Hana Reinhardt

University High School senior Hana Reinhardt spent two years working to earn a foreign exchange student spot in Germany and got it. She was set to do her entire senior year there, until the coronavirus pandemic intervened.

“We got sent home early,” she said.

But she has fond memories of her time there. When she first arrived, she attended a month-long language camp then moved in with a host family in the small town of Tornesch. The family had chickens and horses and she played on the school volleyball team.

She’d often take the train into Hamburg or other nearby cities. “Every week I would take a train and take my bike and volunteer at the animal shelter,” she said.

At first, Reinhardt thought it might be safe to stay in Germany as the virus spread, but soon began to worry that if she didn’t go home, she might be trapped there. In late March, she was told she had to go home and given only two days notice. “It was so quick you couldn’t really say goodbye,” she said.

Counselor Jenny Brant said she’s had a lot of kids come in to her office during her career wanting to be a foreign exchange student. But when they find out what is required, including a lot of paperwork and a few thousand dollars, they don’t pursue it further. She’s had only five successfully complete the process in 22 years.

“It’s hard to do this,” she said. “You have to completely immerse yourself. You have to be pretty on the ball and motivated.”

One of the biggest hurdles is that students need to be familiar with the language spoken in the country they want to visit. “The kids have to get that on their own,” she said.

Brant said Reinhardt was disappointed to have to come home early. “She took that with aplomb,” she said. “She understood.”

The exchange student experience gave Reinhardt the chance to play volleyball again, which she hadn’t done since she was a student at Horizon Middle School. She had a lot of fun playing, but didn’t continue in high school because she thought she wasn’t good enough to join the team.

Her family roots are in Germany and Reinhardt said her mother was a foreign exchange student in Germany when she was in high school and taught her children some German. That started Reinhardt’s love of language. “I really want to learn so many languages and travel the world,” she said. “German was just the first.”

Her skill with languages earned her third place in the annual Spokane Scholars competition in the world world languages category this year, something that caught her off guard. “I was really surprised,” she said.

Her mother works as a pastor at Veradale United Church of Christ and as a photographer. After years of tagging along to her photo shoots, Reinhardt has developed her own skill with a camera. “Since we could click a button, we’ve been using her cameras,” she said of herself and her brother.

As a very young child, Reinhardt wanted to be a dog when she grew up. Once she realized that was impossible, she set her sights on being a veterinarian. She plans to earn a degree in pre-veterinary science from Washington State University.

She wants to keep traveling and learning about other cultures. She said she plans to look into the study abroad options while she’s in college. “There are a lot of opportunities there, so I’m excited,” she said.