PAVING THE ROAD FROM DENMARK TO WILMINGTON

INTERVIEW WITH SØREN KJÆGAARD ’76

BY KAYLA MARTELL, ASSISTANT DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS AND MARKETING AND JENNIFER BELL, FREELANCER

“The road to a friend’s house is never long” even when that road crosses two continents and an ocean.

For Søren Kjægaard, former Tower Hill exchange student, this Danish proverb rings as true today as it did during America’s bicentennial in 1976. It was then that Søren found his wings to fly and became a lifelong Hiller.

The year was 1974 when 16 year old Søren decided it was time to leave Denmark and “test my wings in a distant place.” He was accepted by the American Field Service (A.F.S.) student exchange program, and it was simply by chance that his journey landed him in Wilmington at Tower Hill School. A lot has happened in Søren’s life, and the world, over the past 50 years, but one constant has remained—his continued support of Tower Hill.

“For me, personally, the exchange experience was not only unique, but it also opened my eyes, broadened my perspective and changed me into a different person. At Tower Hill, I had an absolutely amazing year, and it left me with new lenses in my eyes to detect, observe and be aware of so much more than meets the eye. In short, it made me grow and grow up.”

This lasting impression became the springboard for Søren’s desire to keep the road from Denmark to Wilmington paved for future generations of Danes. In 2016, upon traveling with his youngest son, Kristian Emil, to Tower Hill’s Homecoming, he learned that the school was no longer participating in the A.F.S. exchange program. While Tower Hill had numerous other exchange programs in place, Søren “got the idea that it would be great if an exchange could be established directly between Tower Hill and the high school in my backyard that all my three children attended: Rungsted Gymnasium.”

Søren loved that “others could get to know Tower Hill and get a taste of what I was fortunate enough to try.” With his belief that “there could be great compatibility between the two schools and their students—not because they are alike but, because they are different in a great number of ways,” he approached Bessie during that same 2016 trip and was “delighted” to learn “she was open and positive to the idea.”

After presenting the same concept to the headmaster at Rungsted Gymnasium, Søren’s own son, Kristian Emil, “happily volunteered to serve as ‘the pilot,’ spending a month at Tower Hill in the fall of 2017.”

Despite some “bumps in the road” during the years that followed, including pandemic-induced travel restrictions, the Tower Hill-Rungsted Gymnasium connection is once again in full swing. In August of 2022, the first batch of Hillers arrived in Rungsted to partake in the beginning of the Danish school year and likewise, the Rungsted students arrived at Tower Hill in October around Homecoming.

Since 1975, Søren has made 18 trips to America, visiting 33 states and attending nearly all his Tower Hill class reunions and homecoming weekends. He recently reflected, “I cannot begin to fathom how I could ever pay back what I owe to Tower Hill and its community. But I take great pleasure in having been able to contribute in this small way and hope that the students attending will benefit as I did—have a great time, open up their eyes, increase their understanding and become (unknowingly) cultural ambassadors between the mighty U.S.A. and tiny Denmark.”