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German exchange student’s ties to Bishop Guilfoyle stand test of time

Schaefer returns to alma mater to celebrate 60th class reunion

By Colette Costlow 5 min read

Former German exchange student Michael Schaefer and the Sanker family of Altoona became family by chance and friends by choice.

As Bishop Guilfoyle's first exchange student during the 1965-66 school year, Schaefer quickly became the eighth child in the Sanker family during his stay in America while studying in a new country and kicking for the school's varsity football team.

After graduating from Bishop Guilfoyle High School and returning to Munich, Germany, Schaefer went on to study law at Ludwig-Maximilian-University and served for 35 years in the Federal Foreign Service of Germany, most notably as the German ambassador to China from 2007-13.

Schaefer is back in Altoona this week, spending time with his "American family" as he celebrates his 60th class reunion. He said it felt like coming home.

"My year at BGHS has been the turning point in my life," he said.

Schaefer was one of 20 European students chosen by the National Catholic Welfare Conference to participate in the student exchange program, he said. He was unsure how students were assigned to schools and families.

"It was by chance," he said. "It was the chance of my life. Sometimes, that's fate."

The students flew from Europe to Washington, D.C., in August 1965 for a two-week seminar on American culture before traveling to their respective accommodations for the school year. While many kids hopped on planes to St. Louis or Denver, Schaefer traveled to Breezewood via a Greyhound bus.

He said the experience was amazing, yet frightening, especially because he didn't know anyone from the Sanker family.

Walter and Lois Sanker applied to be a host family for the National Catholic Welfare Conference, when their eldest son, John, moved out of the house to attend college, said Cathy Sanker, the second eldest in the family.

"So there was an empty bed in the house, and my mother filled it," she said.

She said that her father told Schaefer that they only speak English in their house, and Schaefer adapted.

"It's remarkable that you're 16 years old, leaving your country of Germany, and he was all but fluent at that time in English, even so that he could come to BG and sit in a classroom and do everything that was required in the classroom," said Mark Sanker, the third eldest.

Coming out of 10th grade, Schaefer was delving into upper-level classes, taking two junior-level and two senior-level classes in English and American History.

He had difficulty understanding most of what was being said inside the classroom, he said, so Lois tutored him as well.

"She was great and tough," he said. "She didn't allow me to say something wrong. She said, 'Could you repeat that?'"

Outside the classroom, Schaefer had a position on Bishop Guilfoyle's football team after the football coach, Al Pacifico, watched him kick a soccer ball with other students in the parking lot.

They met at the football field after school, and Schaefer kicked the ball using the side of his foot through the goal post about eight to 12 times. Kicking a football using the side of your foot was basically unheard of, he said, mentioning that two Hungarian players, Pete and Charley Gogolak, were the only known players to do so at that time.

Pacifico equipped Schaefer with shoulder pads, and he started on their junior varsity team for one game before advancing to the varsity team.

"It was a wonderful experience," he said. "Something, again, that helps you to learn that you can do things which you don't even know."

Schaefer graduated with Cathy during the spring of 1966, and he packed his bags to say goodbye in July of that year.

At that moment, he said he was happy to return to Munich, Germany, and see his family, but he was also feeling sad to leave America and say goodbye to his exchange family.

The youngest in the family, Mark, said their father left Schaefer a gold-plated key in a glass jar, adding that it was Schaefer's key to his American home.

Schaefer took them up on that offer and used that key to their home a few years later. He continued to travel back to America to visit his exchange family over the years, keeping that bond intact.

The Sankers also traveled to Germany to visit Schaefer and a few years ago visited to celebrate his 70th birthday.

Schaefer said being back in Altoona to celebrate his 60th class reunion brought back special memories -- ones that impacted his life's trajectory of being involved in international politics.

"The year at Bishop Guilfoyle in many ways opened my mind to be interested in international questions, international affairs and international relations," he said. "It was probably one of the most important elements which made me, at the end of a longer process of education, choose the job I finally did."

Being away from home for the first time at the young age of 16, "I discovered a totally new society and a surprisingly different culture, which entirely changed my view of the world," he wrote in an email to Lisa Georgiana, BG's director of advancement.

In addition to football, BG and the Sankers, Schaefer said another highpoint of the school year came when the class visited New York and the United Nations.

That trip to the UN "must have implanted in me the wish to go into international affairs," he said.

He also took part in many extracurricular activities, among them the senior class play "Love is Eternal."

When it was time to return home, Schaefer said his experiences shaped the person he would become.

"I departed as a different young man," he said.

"I'm proud that BG was a formative part of Michael's life," Georgiana said. "What an impact on the globe he has."

Mirror Staff Writer Colette Costlow is at 814-946-7414.

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