Each year, Delta Epsilon Phi, the German National Honor Society, honors a student for their outstanding work in German. This year, the student was Bethel Park senior, Erin McMahon.

McMahon was the recipient of the Kathe Wilson Scholarship which awards a student with the chance to experience the AATG Summer Study Program for High School Students.

This program takes students for three weeks to a city in Germany where he or she stays with a host family and attends classes at a Gymnasium. This is the German equivalent to high school.

The scholarship covers all program costs and the airfare.

In order to be eligible for this scholarship, the student has to be currently enrolled in high school German and a member of Delta Epison Phi. The student also must plan to continue studying German in college and show leadership specifically in the German program.

McMahon has certainly met all these requirements.

She has had a long standing history of success within the high school’s German program. Often at the top of the class, she is one of the German Elite.

She has participated for two years on the German Club’s Culture bowl team, which has a reputation for holding some of the top students in the German Program. McMahon’s participation is no surprise.

She is also currently the president of the German Club and, obviously, a member of the German National Honor Society.

Despite her many prestigious achievements, McMahon did not consider herself as a contender.

“I thought the email was spam at first,” said McMahon.

However, it wasn’t spam, and McMahon was very excited to win the scholarship.

She’ll be studying in Braunschweig this summer and has had contact with her host family. Now all that is left is the countdown until her plane departs.