Welcome

SAGSE Western Australia

About SAGSE WA

SAGSE WA is the Western Australian Branch of SAGSE (Scholarships for Australian-German Student Exchange) Australia and each year awards scholarships to Western Australian students to travel to Germany for approximately 10 weeks during their summer holidays. This exchange program aims to give students an insight into the German culture and build friendships between young people from WA and Germany.

Exchange Experience in Germany

Each year a small group of eligible WA students in Year 11 who are studying German are selected by SAGSE WA to participate in the program. In Germany the students stay with a German host family and are expected to attend a German school regularly and to participate in other organised activities. These include a five-day Wintercamp and a group trip to Berlin.

Support and Community Engagement

Our WA exchange students are accompanied by a Group Leader organised by SAGSE, who will be the first point of contact during their exchange period. In Germany the students are met by their host families and representatives of GDANSA e.V. which is the German sister organisation of SAGSE. When they return to WA our students automatically become members of GASS WA, the WA Branch of the German Australian Students’ Society (GASS).

Financial Aspects

Thanks to the generosity of our SAGSE WA Sponsors, Scholarship winners receive fully paid return travel between Perth and their destinations in Germany. Students do not pay board to their host families, but they are required to host a German exchange student before they travel to Germany. Additional costs such as Health and Travel Insurance are not covered by SAGSE WA and students are also expected to have their own spending money during their time in Germany.

Hosting German Students in Western Australia

Each year SAGSE WA welcomes a group of German students to Perth in the middle of June, for a stay of approximately 10 weeks. These students live with their WA host families and attend school with their host siblings. Valuable and lasting friendships can be formed by hosting a German Exchange Student and can promote a greater cultural understanding for all involved.

Students who host a German exchange student enter a probationary period with the view to becoming scholarship recipients and travelling to Germany for 10 weeks at the end of November of that year, or the following year if they are in year 10. During the hosting period, students must demonstrate the values of our organisation and show they are deserving recipients of the scholarship. Provided they meet these requirements, they will join more than 1500 Australian students who belong to the SAGSE alumni network.

At the moment SAGSE WA is searching for potential ‘additional’ host families in Perth. These families would have a child in the relevant age group but who does not necessarily either study German at school or who simply does not wish to apply for an Exchange scholarship to Germany. Such families would be part of a backup list to provide hosting support in an emergency or for a situation where we might have more students coming from Germany than we have WA Exchange Students going to Germany that year.

For more information, please contact Jason Rustandi at president.wa@sagse.org.au.

Friends of SAGSE

Members of our community who would like to support SAGSE WA can make a small annual contribution to join the Friends of SAGSE WA, which entitles them to certain benefits such as free entry to our yearly Black and White Dance.