Way to Go!: Michael Kavanaugh

Michael Kavanaugh, a sophomore at Northport High School, is one of 40 students nationwide receiving an all-expenses-paid trip to Germany this summer, courtesy of the American Association of Teachers of German.

To be selected, Kavanaugh had the highest score among some 400 Long Island students on the association's National German Exam.

He followed that up by interviewing in German with representatives from the association's Long Island chapter.

"It's fun to be able to speak a language my great-grandparents spoke," said Kavanaugh, 16, who started studying German in seventh grade. "In America, we grow up and don't have a lot of contact with other cultures. It's important to have a broad world perspective."

During the 31/2-week trip, Kavanaugh will stay with a host family in Nuremberg and attend German language classes at a local school. He will visit Berlin with other U.S. students to tour the Berlin Cathedral and the Reichstag, or parliament, building.

At Northport, Kavanaugh is president of his school's German Club and a member of the National Honor Society. He plays soccer outside of school and plays the clarinet in school band.