By Paula Day

Woody Danda, a member of Holy Cross parish and a student of St. Pius X High School, has been selected as a finalist for the 1987-88 Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange Program.

As a finalist, Danda will spend a year in Germany, living with a host family and attending a German school. Funding for the full one-year scholarship comes from a three-year-old program sponsored by the West German Bundestag and the American Congress.

Danda left July 20 for a pre-departure orientation at Georgetown University in Washington, DC. From there he will fly to Frankfurt, West Germany, for a four-week language/cultural camp before he meets his German host family.

Danda, son of Ginger and David Danda of Atlanta, maintains a 3.8 grade point average in his college preparatory courses at St. Pius. He has taken four years of German and three years of French and says languages "seem to come naturally -- I pick them up so easily."

Danda expects his German school experience to be a challenge.

"It'll be incredibly different," he says. They have 13 years of formal schooling. The last three are equivalent to being a freshman and sophomore in college. I'll be in the 9^th or 10^th grade of their school."

Danda's study of German began when the mother of a friend who was taking a course in German at Georgia State interested the youth in the language. He has since excelled in his speaking competency to the point of winning first and second place in the German language competitions at Kennesaw College. He says he practices conversing in the language with the French baker where he works.

Dr. Elke Burdon, German instructor and chairperson of St. Pius' language department, approached Danda about the youth exchange program. The school's administration nominated him for the program; he submitted essays and was interviewed by Youth For Understanding personnel. He is one of 150 young people chosen to participate in the initiative for the coming year.

The program's purpose, according to Danda, is "to show students that other people can live differently but in peace." For a year "I'll become a German, as they say," he adds.

Danda's plans for the future? "It's between two choices," he says. "I might apply to Georgetown's School of Foreign Service. I might apply to St. Meinrad's Benedictine Seminary (in Indiana). I might make a retreat there and absolutely love it. They're a teaching order. I'd really like to teach theology."

And the possibility of using his talent for languages?

"Well, maybe, I'd go to Rome to study. Maybe become a nuncio for the Church."