KRAKOW, Poland - Europe is leaving a profound impression on two architecture students from Parkersburg.

Megan Warner and Eric McGinnis are spending a semester studying with a group of University of Tennessee College of Architecture and Design students in Krakow.

Warner, a Parkersburg High School graduate, and McGinnis, a Parkersburg South High School graduate, are fourth-year students in the five-year architecture degree program in Knoxville. They are studying architectural treasures through the Polytechnic Institute in Krakow, while a group of Polish students come to the University of Tennessee to study in this 20-year-old exchange program.

Visiting France and Italy while on a high school tour and visiting England and Scotland with friends contributed to Warner wanting to become an architect, she wrote in an e-mail from Europe.

Although she appreciates U.S. architecture, Warner said Europe seems to be more "engulfed" in its culture.

"Switzerland even has a famous architect (Le Corbusier) on its money," she noted. Warner said she is looking forward to seeing the architecture in Switzerland, where her favorite architect, Peter Zumthor, lives and works.

For McGinnis, this is his first trip to Europe. Since arriving in Poland on Feb. 17, he said he has experienced architecture and culture in 17 cities in Italy, 34 cities in Poland and Prague, Austria, Athens, Crete, Berlin and Kiev.

In March, a University of Tennessee professor took the students to two cities in Austria and several cities in Italy. Warner said she appreciated the architecture in Italy that she had not seen on the high school tour.

Warner also has traveled with friends on this trip to Greece, Hungary and Germany and plans to visit England, Ireland, Sweden, Finland and Estonia. Highlights for Warner included visiting the House of Terror museum and Freedom Statue, both in Budapest, Hungary.

In early May, another professor led the students on a tour of 32 cities in Poland in seven days. On May 7, the Tennessee students visited the home of Victor Ashe, U.S. ambassador to Poland, in Warsaw, McGinnis wrote. Ashe, a former mayor of Knoxville, Tenn., discussed the history of the United States' relationship with Poland.

"The ambassador was excited to have the Tennessee students as guests in his home," McGinnis said.

Even though she had studied about Greece's Acropolis for years, "this architectural jewel was better than I could have prepared myself to see," Warner wrote. McGinnis called the Acropolis, sitting on a hilltop, an amazing ancient structure.

McGinnis said he was impressed by the architecture and paintings of Santa Maria del Fiore cathedral in Florence, Italy.

Warner and McGinnis visited the former Nazi concentration camps at Auschwitz-Birkenau, Poland. She called it a "numbing experience" that everyone should see.

The U.S. students' project this semester is to design a mixed-use complex in Oswiecim, where the death camps were located, that will keep tourists in the region. They sat in on a town hall meeting with the mayor of Oswiecim where the project was discussed. McGinnis said the Poland project requires a delicate handling of the site and its past.

The students attend formal classes in Poland. Warner is taking classes in architectural studio, drawing, sculpture, urban design and history.

While traveling, McGinnis sketches the memorable places he visits and keeps them in a book. Back in Wood County, he has his grandfather Howard McGinnis' sketchbooks from when he served in the U.S. Army in Europe during World War II.

"This trip has been such a great experience," Warner said. "I have learned so much."

McGinnis wrote: "The experiences that I've had by studying abroad are invaluable. It is a great opportunity to not only learn about cultures all over the world, but to learn about how our own culture is perceived on a global scale.

"The amazing thing about all of these places is the interest that the local people openly express about the United States."

McGinnis, the son of Jim and Debbie McGinnis, wants to work in environmental design after graduation. Warner, the daughter of Don and Beth Warner, wants to work in an architecture firm after graduation.