For nearly 30 years, ConVal High School has partnered with the Akademisches Gymnasium in Salzburg to facilitate the biannual exchange of students for the opportunity to learn about different languages and cultures.

Conceptually, the program brings together two very different student populations. While ConVal High School is located in a rural area and serves nine different towns, the high school in Salzburg is situated in Austria's fourth-largest city. ConVal opened as a public high school in 1970, whereas the Akademisches Gymnasium was founded in 1616 by Markus Sittikus von Hohenems, the Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg, as a school dedicated to preparing students for study at the University of Salzburg.

The students in Salzburg follow a curriculum that emphasizes the humanities, specializing in classical languages such as Latin and Greek, as well as modern languages such as French, Spanish, and contemporary Greek, with additional pathways for further study at the university level. ConVal students, by contrast, are provided with comprehensive instruction in traditional academic departments, such as English, mathematics, science, social studies, visual and performing arts, and world languages (German and Spanish) while also benefitting from experiential learning courses in automotive service technology, business, careers in education, computer and information technology, construction trades, digital film and photography, graphic design, manufacturing, and pre-engineering. These contrasts in backgrounds typically lead to rich exchanges and rewarding comparisons among the program participants.

The ConVal-Salzburg partnership is organized as a true student exchange program. Every two years in the fall, a group of select students from Salzburg arrives to live with host families in the district. They attend classes at ConVal High School for about 10 days, participate in field trips, give presentations to classes on a variety of topics, and present at area non-profits and the Peterborough Town Library. Before returning home, they get to tour major cities in the United States.

The following spring, the ConVal students, who previously have hosted members of the Austrian student group, go on their trip to Europe where they briefly visit Munich, Germany, before spending time with their host families in Salzburg. They attend school at the Akademisches Gymnasium, visit local sights like the Fortress Hohensalzburg, Hellbrunn Palace, or the film locations of the Sound of Music. They also visit historically significant sites, such as the "Salzwelten" at the Hallein Salt Mine, which has been worked for over 2600 years, or the former concentration camp at Dachau, and they take organized tours of Austria's capital, Vienna.

The ConVal-Salzburg exchange has been a cornerstone of the German language program at ConVal and has led to lifelong friendships far beyond graduation for many of the participants. In several cases, participation in the ConVal-Salzburg exchange has led to further study and employment in Austria.