It’s been so interesting to see all the things you can do at MATC.
Stella Schomber marvels at the amount of traffic on American streets.
The German native knows she’d make a fortune as an auto mechanic in the United States.
“All the cars and trucks on the roads, it’s amazing,” said the 21-year-old from Giessen, a town of 90,000 people about an hour from Frankfurt in northern Germany.
Schomber was one of a dozen students from Germany visiting Milwaukee Area Technical College from Sept. 23 to October 1 as part of an ongoing student exchange program that began nearly 20 years ago.
At MATC, the students and two instructors explored classrooms, met faculty and students, engaged in hands-on workshops, discovered innovative technology, visited regional employers, and toured some Midwestern sights.
The foreign visitors are from Theodor-Litt-Schule, a technical school in Giessen, and most of them, including Schomber, had never been to the United States before.
“It’s been so interesting to see all the things you can do at MATC,” said Schomber, an automotive student. Her father, a plumber, gave her a small motorcycle when she was a girl, and she fell in love with everything mechanical.
“I started fixing up the motorcycle and then I got into cars,” she said. “I have always had an interest in things that move.” She attends classes one week a month and works at an Audi repair shop the other three weeks. She said she plans to open her own repair shop someday.
On Monday, September 29, Schomber and the other students toured the Al Hurvis/PEAK Transportation Center at MATC’s Downtown Milwaukee Campus. Automotive instructor Scott Fisler helped them change tires and inspect engine parts on the cars in the center. The students then visited the STEM Educational Center, where they worked on the center’s digitized anatomy table and watched robotics.
“We get great help from the MATC instructors for this program,” said Jay Grossert, an automotive technology instructor at the college’s Mequon Campus and a member of the trip’s planning committee. “Their assistance and enthusiasm for showing these students what we have at the college is invaluable.”
The Germans were welcomed to Milwaukee on September 23 by MATC President Dr. Anthony Cruz at the Oak Creek Campus. They toured a tool and die classroom.
On September 24, they visited the Mequon Campus, climbing the wooden poles at the Electrical Power Distribution program’s outdoor training facility, watching a welding class and visiting the automotive technology classrooms.
On September 25, the group visited the Aviation Center, home of MATC’s aviation maintenance program near Mitchell International Airport, and then watched a police science demonstration.
Along with attending educational events, the students toured local businesses SpeedKore Performance Group in Grafton, Schunk Technologies in Menomonee Falls and Church Metal in Milwaukee.
They also found time for some fun. They shopped at Pleasant Prairie’s outlet mall, toured the Harley-Davidson Museum, attended a football game at Oak Creek High School, visited Chicago and went to the Milwaukee Bucks Pro Shop at Fiserv Forum.
“This has always been a wonderful experience,” said Wibke Engelhardt, a German instructor who has made almost every trip to MATC since 2007. “And this year is no different.”
The exchange program was created after Engelhardt participated in a teacher exchange between Wisconsin and Hesse, a state in Germany. She became acquainted with several MATC instructors and a partnership was established. The COVID-19 pandemic canceled the trips scheduled in 2020 and 2021. The trips resumed in 2022.
As part of the exchange, MATC students traveled to Germany in May and plan to visit again in May 2026, Grossert said.
“We’re always looking for students who are interested in this experience,” Grossert said. “I think this is a great opportunity to learn about other cultures and other ways of doing things.”
Learn about MATC’s International Education opportunities
About MATC: As Wisconsin’s largest technical college and one of the most diverse two-year institutions in the Midwest, Milwaukee Area Technical College is a key driver of southeastern Wisconsin’s economy and has provided innovative education in the region since 1912. More than 30,000 students per year attend the college’s four campuses and community-based sites or learn online. MATC offers affordable and accessible education and training opportunities that empower and transform lives in the community. The college offers more than 180 academic programs — many that prepare students for jobs immediately upon completion and others that provide transfer options leading to bachelor’s degrees with more than 40 four-year colleges and universities. Overwhelmingly, MATC graduates build careers and businesses in southeastern Wisconsin. The college is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission.