Danish Students Visit Owings Mills High School as Part of Longstanding Exchange

It has been 10 years since Owings Mills High School physics teacher Jens Otto Mose imagined and then marshaled support for a new learning experience for students at his school – an exchange program with students from Holstebro in his native country of Denmark.

While Mr. Mose passed away in 2003, his vision lives on, as does the intent of the exchange he began – to increase cultural awareness and give students the opportunity to learn about themselves by forcing them to step outside their comfort zones and learn about another culture.

Since it began, the program has flourished and just recently hosted its latest group of Danish exchange students to visit Baltimore County. In late October, a group from Holstebro came to the United States as part of the exchange, first spending a few days in New York before arriving in Owings Mills. From October 19-24, they stayed with the families of Owings Mills High students and toured Washington and Baltimore, in addition to attending classes at OMHS. They took in an American football game, Maryland crabs, and more.

For Owings Mills students, their exchange occurs each spring break, when they travel to to Denmark. The first part of the trip is spent in Copenhagen, where the students are just like all the other tourists visiting famous sites such as Tivoli, The Little Mermaid and Frederiksborg Castle. The second week is spent on the west coast of Denmark in Holstebro, where the students each live with a host family and attend school with their host students.

Today, another Owings Mills teacher, Patti Butler, carries on the tradition. Butler, who was an exchange student to Denmark while in high school, joined Mr. Mose in many of the trips abroad and continues to travel with a group each spring. Several hundred students from both Owings Mills and Denmark schools have noted that this experience is life-changing and their greatest memory of high school.

Story and photos provided by Patti Butler, chairperson of the Career, Business, and Technology department and Good News Ambassador for Owings Mills High School.