Last April, Locke Roschyk became the third person in his Granger family awarded Southwestern Michigan College’s Math/Science Department’s Appreciation Award.

Brother Creed won in 2021, sister Anaya in 2019. She went on to be SMC’s only virtual graduation speaker at the height of the pandemic in 2020.

Roschyk, 18 in May, was home-schooled until his junior year of high school, when he opted to play soccer for Edwardsburg.

He graduates May 4 with his Associate in Science degree in general studies. In August he follows in the footsteps of his brother by entering the merit-based, State Department-funded Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange (CBYX).

When he returns from Germany in 2025, Roschyk plans to study aerospace engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the University of Colorado Boulder or the California University of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena, where the fictional characters of “Big Bang Theory” teach.

Roschyk, a former student assistant for SMC’s Honors Program who counsels at summer STEM camps, can expect a different overseas experience than Creed, whose stay was impacted at every turn by COVID-19.

Roschyk was just 13 when he took his first SMC class. He also investigated studying in Iceland, “but Germany was the only program I found that offered a full ride.”

Roschyk and his parents are still mulling whether he goes for master’s and Ph.D. degrees or joins the Air Force after his bachelor’s degree.

“I have no idea yet where I’m going to be” in Germany, he said, but where Creed started from Frankfurt’s railroad hub after a three-week virtual orientation, with the pandemic subsided, Locke starts with three days in Napierville, Ill., then in Munich with a three-week language camp before settling in with families. The experience concludes in Washington in mid-2025.

“We haven’t met in person yet, but we’ve put together group chats,” he said. This will be his first trip out of the country.

Creed, who joined his police host family on holiday in Turkey, “helped me with the application process, which was great,” Roschyk said. “He never told me I should do it, but he did express how much he enjoyed it, and that it was a great experience to have. I don’t think he was surprised when I told him, but he seemed happy about it. And he told me what to expect so it’s not as much of a culture shock.”

Roschyk looks forward to seeing notable landmarks such as castles for his burgeoning interest in photography.

“My grandpa got me into wildlife and landscape photography,” he said. “I like to take pictures while I hike. Part of what drew me to Germany is the incredible history. We think we’re an old country, and we’re not. I was a little sad to hear we’re not allowed to drive because I was looking forward to the Autobahn” where traffic flies along at 80 mph.

Creed is halfway through Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland to obtain a biomedical engineering degree, then attend medical school to become an orthopedic surgeon.

Anaya went to Ohio’s Oberlin College and Conservatory wanting to become a pediatric neurologist, which requires a medical degree, and to pursue neurological research, which takes a doctorate.