The German Club is a safe place for McDowell High School students to get out of their comfort zones and talk to people they don’t know, thus improving their social skills.

Megan Tredrea, the German teacher at McDowell, says that they, “celebrate the German culture and language, and we get to do fun activities related to German.” She reinforces this idea by saying, “I think it gives them a good space. They come together to hang out, but also like to talk about things that they really enjoy.”

Tredrea created the club because of her love for the language. “I really loved German in high school. It was a place that I really felt that I could make a difference and I wanted to give the students an opportunity to have the same sort of thing that I had and have a place where they can explore German language and culture,” Tredrea says.

There are many different fundraisers to help the club, such as one through Chipotle and a recent one selling candy grams from Saint Niklaus and Krampus, traditional German holiday characters. The fundraisers do a lot of different things for the club from paying for German Club merch to paying for competitions.

One language competition the group competes at is located in Southern Pennsylvania at Washington and Jefferson College. Tredrea says, “It is for all of Western Pennsylvania and West Virginia’s middle schools and high schools to come together and do a bunch of German language competitions. There’s usually around 500 students who go.”

The students love German and participating in the club, competitions, and fundraisers. Tredrea plans to keep the German Club alive and thriving for many years to come.

Tredrea says the German Club meets every other Monday for the first semester and then every other Thursday for the second semester in her room, 221-2 at McDowell Intermediate.