By Megan Bradley (Whetstone staff writer)

Irina Becker and Sarah Franz Whetstone / Cochise Lucas

Sarah Franz and Irina Becker think that all students should have the chance to travel abroad.

“Traveling abroad teaches you true independence,” the German exchange students said. “Your personality adapts and grows, and you lose any stereotypes you may have had.”

Both Franz and Becker are graduate students from Germany spending the semester at Wesley to study marketing and management.

Wesley is part of the International Student Exchange Program (ISEP), and through this program, both students applied to several colleges in the United States.

Franz and Becker attend college at Marburg University in Germany, which is spread across the city of the same name and holds 20,000 students.

Becker likes that Wesley is a small school.

“The teachers are very helpful and take interest in the students,” she said. “Both in and out of the classroom.”

Unlike Marburg, Wesley’s campus is small.

“At Marburg, the campus is spread out over an entire city and everyone lives separately,” she said.

Becker also likes the sports program at Wesley, because no matter a student’s level, there is at least one sport you can participate in, which is different than in Europe.

Franz also likes the academic side of Wesley.

“Unlike at home, there is not one cumulative exam at the end of the class and no other test,” she said.

“The opportunity to take smaller exams and have them count as one massive test is a much better situation than the huge exam at the end.”

Like Becker, she also likes how personal Wesley can be.

Becker and Franz both dislike the lack of healthy food and the challenges of not having a car on campus, but look forward to traveling to Washington D.C., New York and Philadelphia during their semester in Dover.