Fulbright Awards Four Teaching Positions to CSB/SJU

Sam, Laura, Michael, and Bennet, we admire your global vision and wish you the best for the very rewarding year ahead!

Each year, CSB and SJU German majors and minors are selected for research projects and teaching positions in Austrian and German Gymnasien, or schools. Over the past 15 years some fifty CSB/SJU students have participated in these prestigious programs following their graduation. The Fulbright Commission especially appreciates applicants who are interested in the study and use of German in their plans for the future, either in teaching or in other careers. For more information about how to apply before next year's October 15th (Germany) and February 1st (Austria) deadlines, see the Fulbright Webpage and Application Form.

Study Abroad Applications Up 100% in One Year

32 CSB/SJU Students Apply for the Fall 2008 Salzburg Program after a 15-Year Average of 16 Applications

This spring, a record 32 students applied for our fall term program at the University of Salzburg. The last time application numbers reached that level was twenty years ago in 1987. "This year's group is one of the best prepared in language and culture that we have seen in many years," commented Professor Gregory Schroeder, director of the Fall 2008 Salzburg Program.

Above: A few of the lucky ones going to Austria for Fall semester

Above: Robert Mevissen, who is majoring in both German and French, is enjoying a sunny day on his way to classes at the University of Salzburg

Austrian Fulbrighters Claudia Gomsi and Michael Zwinger

A message from Claudia Gomsi ... I have met several American Fulbright Teaching Assistants in Austria who enjoyed their time abroad a lot. Three of them even stayed at our house in Bad Radkersburg. Seeing them having a great time abroad inspired me also to apply for a Fulbright scholarship and share my language and my culture with American students. more >>

A message from Michael Zwinger ... I really enjoy teaching German and Austrian culture. I like talking to the students and meet them throughout the activities of the German Club in which I hopefully can enforcing linguistic skills, improve cultural understanding and form networks with students from around the world. more >>

Thank you Lonnie Johnson in Vienna for guiding our Fulbright TA Recipients each year; Dave Lyndgaard, Provost Rita Knuesel, and Dean Joe Desjardins for supporting our new German Studies curriculum and paving the way for Fulbright TA positions at CSB/SJU. Thank you John Taylor for your work with foundations on our behalf; Mike Connolly and Jody Terhaar for finding excellent living quarters for our visiting Fulbright TA/Scholars; professors Greg Schroeder and Charles Bobertz for superb management of our Salzburg Program; Ernie Dietrich, Greg Schroeder and Joe Rogers for helping us create a vision for European and German Studies Abroad; Tom Kroll for your giving our students tours -- in German -- through the SJU wetlands; Stuart Goldschen for your superb photography and moral support; and Mary Niedenfuer for your countless daily contributions as coordinator of our department. We couldn't do it without you!!

German Majors Katy Amann, Julie Haimann, Michael Risch-Jansen, and Sam Lauer Complete Senior Presentations

Dear Katy, Julie, Michael, and Sam! What a wonderful group of students you have been. We are especially proud of your final projects and the wide range of interests they represent: Die Jacke: Eine Aufgliederung des Symbols der Jacke in Franz Kafka's Der Prozess und Amerika (Katy Amann); Christentum leicht: Dietrich Bonhoeffers Theologie als andauerndes Werkzeug gegen die Expansion des Faschismus (Julie Haimann); Die moralische und ethische Verantwortung eines Wissenschaftlers: Entwicklung der Rolle der Wissenschaften zwischen den Weltkriegen (Michael Risch-Janson); Mendelssohn und die Amischen: Die Anwendung der politischen Ideen von Mendelssohn für die Analyse einer heutigen religiösen Gruppe (Sam Lauer)

Thank you, seniors, for your hard work on these projects. You are true models for the younger students of our department! Alles Gute!

German Professors Lisa Ohm, Andreas Kiryakakis, Wendy Sterba, and Mark Thamert Inaugurate New German Studies Curriculum

Since June 2005 the German Studies Faculty has been engaged in a comprehensive curriculum renewal project, Excellence and Cohesiveness in the German Studies Curriculum. Our new slate of courses and co-curricular activities present a new integration of culture, literature and language-building activities at every level in the undergraduate program. We are now offering for the first time a variety of 2-credit courses to help our majors and minors complete their program of study in a timely manner. We are delighted with the results of more than three years of research and workshop on what will best suit our students' needs. more>>

Professors Lisa Ohm, Andreas Kiryakakis, Wendy Sterba and Mark Thamert engaged in dozens of curricular discussions from June 2005 to September 2008

German Professor, Mark Thamert, O.S.B., Receives the Robert Spaeth Teacher of Distinction Award

"My Colleagues in German Studies have made teaching a most meaningful, challenging, and joyous experience over the years. Thank you Lisa, Wendy, and Andreas for your creativity, unflinching nose for excellence, and your daily friendship. And of course, our students are our ongoing inspiration." -- Fr. Mark Thamert

SJU President, Br. Dietrich Reinhart, offers Fr. Mark his congratulations. more >>

Alumna Laura Wunsch Writes about Her Fulbright Experience in Schwaz, Austria

I knew that I wanted to be a part of the Fulbright program even before I started at CSB/SJU. I had friends who had done Fulbright and only had good things to say. I was set up in a town called Schwaz. It has only been good things this entire year! My teachers are flexible, nice, creative and simply great to work with. The students are well behaved, funny inside and outside of class, and just so great. I couldn't have asked for better schools. At orientation I got to meet other TA's in my region, who I am good friends with and see often. I have joined a rugby team which keeps me busy, and I am in Austria, the center of Europe. I have taken every opportunity to travel, see Europe and make close friends, while improving my German. This is an opportunity that everyone should take advantage of!

Even though it can be hard to graduate and immediately be separated from your friends by an ocean, it is one of the best decisions of my life. I have had so much fun in this last year that I have applied and have been accepted to stay for a second year! Feel free to contact me with questions. Alles Gute -- und werdet doch zukünftige Fulbrighter!

Keith Spinali Writes about His Year Teaching in Austria

The year I spent in Austria on a teaching Fulbright went really well. I got to spend a year sandwiched between the Wachau, Waldviertel and Weinviertel regions of Lower Austria... so I got to experience a multitude regional culture. The food was amazing.

The following year I stayed in Vienna and studied Korean at the University of Vienna, at least officially. I ended up actually enrolling in one of the best Tae Kwon Do academies outside of Korea. It was there that I spent three to four hours a day training under and with some of the best martial artists.

When I arrived back in the US in August, I was planning on joining the US military. My mother is an administrator at VA hospital, and one of the doctors there has been working on a Special Forces contract for me. Unfortunately, I shattered a bone last week, and now joining the military seems impossible.

So now I am studying for the LSAT and tentatively planning on going to law school. How are things with the German department?

Cheers,

Keith