On July 9, 2008, Consul General Jo Ellen Powell met with members of the school band of Hauptschule Innenstadt in Tübingen who have recently returned from their
"Windows on America" program in Washington, D.C., Charlotte, North Carolina and New York. Consul General Powell listened to the experiences of the ten students and their three teachers who chaperoned the group and discussed differences and similarities between American and German life style. Headmaster Fritz Sperth commended the organization World Learning that put together the program in the United States for arranging so many "musical encounters" between the school band and American school choirs and school bands: "Even though the English language provided some challenges at times, we all communicated beautifully in the universal language of music."