FSLM Student Profile June 2025

Meet Maike Giese
By Baylor McLelland

photo by shane darby

Every foreign-exchange program brings students from across the globe to new places they’d most likely never get to see otherwise. The experience allows them to visit exciting countries, meet new people, and bask in different cultures. One question asked often to Maike Giese, a German exchange student who attended Arkansas High School this past year, was, “Why come to Texarkana?”

Maike is from the small town of Okel, a rural area with no grocery stores, where she would have experienced a “less interesting” school year. She said that, aside from a standard physical education course, theater, and a small robotics class, there isn’t much variety in the German school curriculum. But at Arkansas High, she’s been given the opportunity to pursue news broadcasting, track, robotics, and tennis. 

“At the beginning of the school year, I looked at the sheet with all the classes I could take and wondered what ‘AV Productions’ meant,” she explained. “After the first week of school, a friend took me to one of her favorite classes with one of her favorite teachers. I didn’t quite know what to expect, but Mr. Akins [The RazorbackTV teacher] took me in so friendly that I knew I didn’t have any other choice than to change my schedule and take the class.”

Maike had her mind set on attending as many football games as she could this year. With RazorbackTV, she ended up not only watching the games but being a part of them. She was a regular member of RazorbackTV’s “Stream Team” this past football season, even going to the first round of playoffs to film. 

Maike attended a signing for robotics funding in Arkansas with teachers Laila Miller and Chris Brisco and fellow student Nick Brown. submitted photo

While a robotics course is offered in Germany, Maike had never thought about it professionally until this year, after attending several competitions and even travelling to NASA for the state-level competition this past April. “I wouldn’t have gotten the chance to go if not for Mr. Brisco, and I loved going to Houston,” she said. “I actually talked to the University of Houston, and if I get a full ride, I might go there for college, so you might be seeing me there in two years.”

Maike was enrolled at Arkansas High as a junior but will experience two more years of schooling once she returns to Germany later this month. Maike plans on pursuing engineering after high school. After her experience with RazorbackTV, she’s also considering a future in media productions. 

Being involved in so much on campus will allow you to make new friends, a key part of the foreign-exchange program. But a big worry for Maike was how to do that. “I make a lot of jokes and am a sarcastic person, but if I don’t know people, I’m not like that,” she explained. “I don’t want to say the wrong things because I don’t know what your humor is. I kind of had to change how I walk up to people. It’s kind of like coming out of my shell a little bit.” 

A key part of every foreign-exchange student’s stay in America is host families, with Maike leaving one host family earlier this year. “My mom likes me for me,” she explained. “But in a house family, I feel like you always kind of have to present yourself.”

However, when you make friends through something like tennis, those relationships build more naturally. During tennis season, Maike met Hannah Skinner, and the two became instant friends. They are almost inseparable now, spending time together on and off the court.

Maike with her host sister and best friend, Hannah Skinner. submitted photo

“We went to homecoming together, we got ready for homecoming together, we had sleepovers, hosted a Friendsgiving,” she said. “We always had each other’s back.”

The two became so close, in fact, that when Maike was looking for a new host family, Hannah offered up her home for the rest of the year. “She’s my sister,” Maike explained. “I feel like we are kind of soulmates. You don’t have to be romantic to be soulmates; we’re platonic soulmates.”

Maike’s also found a family through Kaden Nine, another junior on the tennis team. They attended homecoming and prom together, along with several other activities in and out of school. “Falling in love was not on my agenda, but sometimes it just happens,” she said.

Now, with her time in America coming to a close, she looks back on all that’s happened this year. “If you live here, I can see why you think that there’s nothing special about this place, but there actually is,” she said. “People are always like, ‘Oh, why did you come to Texarkana? There’s nothing here to do.’ But there really is so much. You’ve lived here your whole life; of course it’s not special to you. I didn’t, and I think this place is so special, and I always will.”