Leonie Aksyonov, German Minor, 2022:

“I started my first year at Skidmore in Elementary German. My first day, Professor O’Brien welcomed me in German. Because I only really knew “guten Tag”, I worried I had walked into an advanced class. I struggled at first, hoping a “ja” or “nein” would pass for any question. But my goal was to continue, study in Freiburg my junior year, and maybe move post-grad. With COVID, I was unfortunately unable to go, but was still grateful for extra time in the department. The professors are very supportive. Class offerings include language and literature, but also special topics such as “Fairytales”. There are always opportunities to practice German; through kaffeestunde, kulturpunkte, and office hours. The department additionally offers German Drillers for first-year learners, and peer tutors.

The German department brought my attention to Aktion Sühnezeichen Friedensdienste (ASF/ARSP), a volunteer service that placed me working with people with disabilities at Diakoniewerk Simeon in Berlin. This year, there are 17 international volunteers in Germany, most of whom work at Holocaust remembrance sites. Moving to a new country to work in a language I only learned in a classroom was nerve-wracking. But the department greatly prepared me, and I speak and understand German better every day.”

Lizzie Bourdelais, German Minor, 2022:

“I took elementary German on a whim during my second semester at Skidmore. I had no personal history with the language or culture—no German ancestry, no experience travelling to a German-speaking country. Nonetheless, after one semester, I had fallen in love with the language. I knew I wanted to at least minor in German. My favorite thing about the German program at Skidmore was the closeness of the program. As I took more German classes, I saw the same students progressing with me. Everyone in the German program knew each other, and there was a sense of comfort working with the same people. Because we only spoke German in the higher-level classes, we had the space to make mistakes with no judgement.  The professors gave their students the sense that they cared about German and their students; they truly wanted them to be inspired by German. Unfortunately, the COVID pandemic interrupted my plans to study abroad. However, I am now an English teaching assistant in a small Austrian town. Whenever I order a coffee at the bakery next door, I think of how far I’ve come from a second-semester freshman attending Kaffeestunde to living full-time in a German-speaking country.”

Katie Huss,  German Major 2005:

I graduated in 2005 with a double major in German and art history. I am currently living in Vienna, Austria, working as an English language teaching assistant with the Fulbright Commission. I received the position in 2005 when I graduated and chose to remain a second year because I was enjoying myself so much. I am certainly using my language skills now, although not  so much in my job as in my day-to-day life. I studied abroad twice while at Skidmore: once in the summer of 2003 on the SACI program in Florence and with IES in Vienna in the fall of 2003. I found both experiences really just whet my appetite so to speak for living and working abroad and were a major factor in my decision to apply for jobs overseas after graduating.

Johannes Roman Toepler, German Minor 2022:

“The German program at Skidmore had accelerated my ability to speak faster than expected. Within the first four courses I took (starting from 101), I was already able to communicate with my family in Germany and have a solid foundation of the language. Furthermore, I greatly appreciated the variety of courses based on German culture and history after I was done with the basic grammatical courses. They provided me with a more complete understanding of day to day life in Germany and the people as a whole. I now live in Germany, playing Fußball and looking to further my studies while working a job.”

Eleyna Scarbro, German Major, 2021:

“After spending the summer after graduation at home in Massachusetts, I traveled to Austria to begin my job as a Fulbright native speaker in high school English classrooms. I live in Vienna and commute to work in two different schools in Wiener Neustadt, an adorable little city in Lower Austria. The work is so fulfilling and I love living here, so next year I’m coming back to work in two schools right in the center of Vienna. My students are so excited to connect with me and learn about the US, and my teachers have gone above and beyond in welcoming me. I’ve made friends from all over the world through Fulbright, and I’ve made Austrian friends through my roommates and a weekly cafe meetup for queer women in the city. The German program at Skidmore fostered my excitement for cultural exchange, my confidence in unfamiliar territory, and, of course, my German language ability. These skills have empowered me to connect with the local culture here in Austria, and I’m thrilled to know that I’ll be coming back next year.”