1999 Exchange Student Returns Reliving His Syracuse Days

by Michele Boy | November 21, 2025

Summer of August 1998, a young man from Germany set out on an adventure as an exchange student through the EF Foundation to Syracuse Kansas to attend high school for one year. 
Georg Motzko wanted the experience of studying in another country to become more self-confident, learn a new language, and experience a different culture.  His host family were former residents Duane and Marge Cheney. 
Fast forward 27 years, this same young man steps up to the box office at the Northrup Theatre on Sunday, stating it had been a long time since he had been at a movie here, and so the conversation began. 
Learning of his experience in Syracuse, he mentioned some of his classmates and teachers, and said he travelled to Washington D.C with Steve McAllister. 
As luck would have it, Steve and his wife Rhonda happened to be at the movie that night, so within hours of arriving in Syracuse, he was able to reconnect with a friend and former teacher.
Motzko is a commercial pilot for Lufthansa German Airlines, “Like United Airlines or American Airlines in the United States,” he explained. 
Landing at Denver International Airport last week, he was faced with a four-day layover, “I got out of a standby line, and decided to use these four days in Colorado to drive to Syracuse and look at my old school after 27 years!” 
I asked if he would like to tour the school, which he said he would, so we planned to meet at the school Monday morning. 
While entering the high school office that morning, we were greeted by Principal Josh Houston who welcomed Motzko. We then toured the school, found a display of all his classmates’ senior pictures, “That’s me with all that hair!” said Motzko.
Making our way outside the facility, he was curious about the big round silver building but was soon impressed with the Herndon Gym and its awesome facilities. 
Reflecting on his time at SHS, he remembers being a little afraid at the beginning of school, “My English was not very good at that time, and I had problems speaking free.” 
He and the other exchange students from Germany had a month before school started to get used to the language, listening to the radio and going to the movies.
“But I was excited about the possibility to get a driver’s license at sixteen because we had to be eighteen in Germany!” he said. 
He had not played sports in Germany and said it was too hot to practice and learn football, coming from a much cooler climate, when he first arrived in the United States. 
When school began, he did not think the studying was hard, but admits it was hard not to speak German with the other students, “The teachers said no speaking German in school!”
He said, “I took lessons from that golf guy (Rick Mathias) and played the bass guitar at the football games!” 
Spring came and Motzko decided to play baseball, “That was a highlight of my time here, going to state with Coach Micky Sharon.”
Another highlight was the summer after graduation when he was able to travel to Washington D.C. with other students from SHS with sponsors, Steve McAllister and his wife Rhonda, “It was great to visit the United States’ capitol,” said Motzko. 
While he graduated with his classmates, that senior graduation was not valid in Germany, “I had to restart high school for another three years,” said Motzko, “So I graduated again in 2002.”
He did return in 2003 to Syracuse for his host family’s daughter, Shanna’s graduation, spending a week, but had not been back until Sunday.  
After graduation in Germany, he joined the military for two years, then became a reserve officer. In 2004 he began at Bremen in aeronautical engineering and airline management. “I also paralleled that with the airline training school of Lufthansa.”
His career with Lufthansa began in 2008 until 2018 for Lufthansa Regional flying inside Europe then began international flights started at Airbus A380 in 2018.
During COVID they stopped operation for two years. After staying home for two and a half years, he began long-range flying in 2023, “At the moment I operate around the world,” said Motzko.
Motzko married in 2013 and has two children who will be 2 and 8 next month. They live in the northern part of Germany, between Bremen and Hamburg 
Our morning tour concluded at the Hamilton County Library where he spent time visiting a classmate, Amy Brucker. 
Brucker said their similarities were very coincidental, “We both have two younger children, live in the country, and both of us own about nine acres” 
Brucker and Motzko are also involved in their communities, especially during the Christmas holiday. Brucker also caught him up with their classmates, where they were and what they were doing.