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“As a combat veteran of Iraq, I know personally the importance of cultural understanding and how necessary empathy for other cultures is to becoming a global citizen. Study tours like this to Germany are crucial to a climate of dialogue and diplomacy.”
“Connections and comparisons are two things that cannot be made solely in the classroom. These experiences occur when learning is taken to a level past memorization and testing. A study tour to German speaking countries would give me the opportunity to make those connections and comparisons between life the way I know it and how people around the world live.”
-- Leon Fyfe and Nicolette Stanfill, Berlin Study Tour Participants 2006-2007
ACHTUNG! German Studies in Berlin will NOT be traveling summer 2010! GSiB will be traveling summer 2011!
Berlin has been loved and reviled throughout its complicated history. The city is the iconic symbol of five political identities: Prussian imperialism, the short-lived brilliance of Weimar, the terror of the Third Reich, Cold War division, and now the capital of a reunified Germany. No other city so dramatically embodies the tumultuous events of the twentieth century and our collective modern experience. Berlin is an electric center of political and cultural activity, a vibrant and fascinating metropolis.Importantly, Berlin is undergoing an unprecedented reconstruction that goes far beyond an architectural face-lift. Its ever-present cranes and scaffolding mirror a process German identity itself seems to be experiencing. Challenged by a heavy historical legacy, both the city and German conceptions of identity are re-constructing themselves, and in the process transforming conceptions of European identity. Due to its historical significance and geopolitical location, the city has become a metaphor for not only a new conception of German identity, but the process of European integration itself.
In Berlin, students will encounter a city caught between its tumultuous past and a massive project to redefine itself. This unique situation is ideal for students to explore past and present in an open classroom setting. The summer program in Berlin provides students with a fourteen day opportunity to discover one of Europe’s most dynamic cities through a range of activities, including dinners with locals, tours to historically, politically, and culturally significant sites (such as museums, memorials, and buildings), visiting the German Chancellery, and attending the Berlin Philharmonic.
Fifteen students will be selected each year to participate in the program. Please contact Dr. Nelson for more information about the program application process.
The German Studies in Berlin director, Dr. Julian Nelson, and one advisor, will accompany students to Berlin, while several colleagues and teaching assistants from the Freie Universität in Berlin will join us once we arrive to lead tours and attend dinners. Students must enroll in a 5 credit seminar course before departure (German 150: Berlin in Film and Literature) and take a seminar while in Berlin, either language or culture based, depending on needs. Extensive note taking and journals record impressions for individual culminating projects: reflection essays and Power-Point presentations in the fall on specific aspects of Berlin’s cultural, political, and historical heritage.
Mission Statement
Preparing our students to excel in environments of cultural, economic and linguistic difference is the cornerstone of student success. If our students are to function competitively at home and in parts of the economy that cross national borders and different languages (a defining feature of the global economy), we have a responsibility to provide them with the resources necessary to develop these skills. In order for students to have empathy for different societies and negotiate cultures effectively, they must have the advantage of a global education with a strong commitment to diversity, which is a defining feature of Clark College’s mission statement. Clark College is committed to this idea, and, for the past three years, the German Studies in Berlin Program has delivered the opportunity, resources, and support necessary for student success in achieving a global education.
German Studies in Berlin has a staff deeply committed to student success and the quality of their education. We feel it is vitally important to assert the humanities’ core contribution to the quality of a liberal arts education and its shaping of civic life and public values. We are committed to empowering our students through a liberal arts education and helping them discover languages and cultures, a process essential to a deeper understanding of the humanities as well as personal and social development. While the our primary educational goal is to help students succeed in acquiring proficiency in language and culture, our broader aim is to challenge students to develop empathy for cultural diversity while cultivating the effective communication skills needed to negotiate the trans-national nature of contemporary society. The conception of the German Studies in Berlin Program has it origins in studies that validate Clark College’s mission: international travel and the study and appreciation of languages, history, and cultural traditions contributes significantly to global well being and serves as the basis for informed reflection upon the ethics and values that shape societies. Respecting human rights is a question of learning to appreciate what sets us apart, while honoring that which binds us together as humans.
The German Studies in Berlin Program confirms the college’s mission and diversity imperative that defines exposure to and dialogue with other cultures as an essential component of the undergraduate learning experience. The guiding passion of GSiB is to provide an international learning opportunity that improves student learning, retention, and success. Participation in the program puts them into very challenging and meaningful contexts in a new culture. This kind of learning experience is multi-faceted, embodying the five “Cs” of language study articulated by the college: communication, cultures, connections, comparisons, and communities. Participation in the program rewards students with the benefits of a life-changing experience. Whether negotiating a a major urban metro system or the philosophical and ethical implications of the Holocaust, students learn in new and challenging contexts. Furthermore, the program offers distinct advantages of an international education experience in one of the most diverse cities in Europe with a thriving, cosmopolitan political and cultural scene.
Programs that promote the international exchange of people and ideas provide students with distinct advantages. Global citizenship is undeniably the passport for truly life-long learning. Studies emphasize that participation in such programs helps students develop a range of marketable skills applicable to both college success and the workplace including cooperative learning and problem solving; tolerance for ambiguity; open-mindedness; communicativeness; flexibility and adaptability; curiosity; warmth in human relations; self-reliance; tolerance for difference; strong conflict resolution strategies; and the ability to set realistic goals and complete them. Most importantly, students return with renewed and stronger academic motivation.
The German Studies in Berlin Program empowers students to take that next step toward a truly global learning community. The German Studies in Berlin Program offers our students global citizenship for the new century.