A packed house filled room 102 at the Stephen C. Hall building on Feb. 28 for the annual School of Modern Languages’ German Day. This year’s event featured a presentation and panel on language learning during Covid-19, a networking reception, and a student showcase.
German program faculty members Hyoun-A Joo, Britta Kallin, and Annika Orich share the significance of this intercultural event:
German Day, organized by Georgia Tech’s German Program, connects the German-speaking community on and off campus. Students and alumni share their experiences and achievements studying, interning, and working abroad in a German-speaking country to inspire one another. At the same time, our partners and sponsors provide great support to our students’ pursuit of studying German at Georgia Tech.
Important partners, among them the Consul General of Germany, the Consul General of Switzerland, Porsche Cars North America, the Goethe-Zentrum Atlanta, and the Georgia Department of Education, among others, shed light on the crucial function of intercultural competence for solving present and future crises during a panel discussion.
Especially meaningful was the opportunity to bring together our sponsors, representatives from The Halle Foundation and The Gail and Barry Spurlock Scholarship, with the recipients of their scholarships and fellowships; awardees’ testimonies showed how this crucial financial support contributed significantly to students’ success in studying German at GT.
At this year’s German Day, we also had the privilege to host our former colleague, Professor Emerita Bettina Cothran, to announce the first recipient of the new The Bettina F. Cothran Scholarship, named in her honor!
To begin the event, Richard Utz, professor and associate dean at Ivan Allen College, gave the opening remarks.
Students then presented on the following topics:
- GT German Club by club president and German minor Lukas McCarthy
- LBAT and Interning Abroad by German minor Tina Hilko
- Vienna Early Immersion by Nick Muir, a double major in Applied Languages and Intercultural Studies (German) and Public Policy
- M.S. Programs by Cisco Stenger, an M.S. in Global Media and Cultures with a focus on German
Two alumni also spoke about their post-graduation careers, including Nicole Butler at the G.T. Institute of DEI, and Anne Lashinsky at MHP — A Porsche Company.
Next up on the agenda was the panel on “Language Learning During Covid: How Can Intercultural Competence Assist Us in the Age of Crisis?”
Panel members included Melanie Moltmann, the Consul General of Germany, Urs Broennimann, the Consul General of Switzerland, Nicolette Gahleitner, a specialist advisor for German as a foreign language in the Southeastern U.S., Erika Burk, the vice president of human resources at Porsche Cars North America, Inc., and Oliver Gorf, the executive director of Goethe Zentrum Atlanta.
Before the event concluded with the networking reception and student showcase, there was a final segment of partner and student testimonies. Speakers included Patrick Wallace from the Georgia Department of Education; Barry Spurlock, the former president of Spurlock & Associates, Inc., with scholarship recipients Peter Chapman and Jason Sodikin, Halle Foundation scholarship recipients Eli Jacobs and Christopher Ballenger, and Professor Emerita Bettina Cothran, who spoke about the honor of having former students establish a scholarship fund in her name.
Thank you so much to everyone who came out and made German Day a success — we can’t wait to see you again next year!
