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Amy Taylor of Pahrump has been awarded a scholarship for the 2009-10 academic year and will join a group of 50 American high school students sponsored by ASSE International Student Exchange Programs.

They will live with a host family and attend high school in Germany for one academic year.

Since 1983, the United States Department of State and the German government have co-sponsored the prestigious Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange Scholarship Program to help prepare ambitious young people for a global future.

As a Congress-Bundestag scholarship recipient, Taylor will experience German life firsthand.

She will live with a carefully selected host family while becoming a member of her German host community, attending school, participating in community life and learning more than she ever imagined about another country and culture, about the world and its diversity and about herself.

When Taylor leaves for Germany, a group of German scholarship students will arrive to live with American host families while attending high school in the USA.

"When it comes to increasing understanding between people from different cultures and countries, nothing is as powerful as sharing your daily life with someone from another part of the world," said Alina Romanowski, deputy assistant secretary of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

"We are encouraging American families and schools to open their doors to these extraordinary young people from other countries.

"When a high school exchange student is welcomed into a family and a community, the student gets a view of America that will make a profound difference in who they are and how they relate to and view Americans forever after.

"At the same time, people in the community have an opportunity to benefit in ways that will also change the way they look at the world."