German students excel abroad

The German area salutes three of our students who have received prestigious grants for international study and teaching.

Four semesters of German allowed Psychology Major and WSU senior Jasmine Hect ('17) to earn a travel award and scholarship to participate in the Munich Brain Program on March 31-April 1, 2017. The aim of the course is to illustrate and teach anatomical issues as viewed from various neuroscientific disciplines. With 9 other BA and MA students from around the globe, Jasmine was able to work in an anatomy lab at the Ludwigs-Maximilians University in Munich, which also houses our Junior Year in Munich Program. This year, the program's focus was on the spinal cord, cerebellum, and occipital lobe. Here she is preparing specimens for study.

German and Honors major and WSU junior Manon Nitta ('19) plans to pursue a career as a physician assistant in rehabilitative medicine when she graduates in two years. This year, she is spending the winter semester as a participant in the Junior Year in Munich program. She also received an Undergraduate Research and Creative Projects Award to conduct research for her senior honors project on the history of prosthetics in Germany. This project involves visiting museums and archives with collections related to this history. Here she is at the Ottobock Museum in Berlin. Of her decision to study both the humanities and the natural sciences, she writes the combination has "opened up doors for me that I never knew existed, academically and in possible career paths, and shows how connected we are to the world."

As an undergraduate, Katelyn Foster ('15) majored in theater and German, spent a summer in Russia, and participated in the Junior Year in Munich program with the support of a prestigious German Academic Exchange Service Grant. In the picture, she is in the middle, performing on the German stage, in German. Two years later, Katelyn is now completing her M.A. in German, and for next the next academic year she has been awarded a Fulbright Teaching Assistantship to Germany. As one of 20 students from across the country who will be participating in the Fulbright Diversity Program, she will be assigned to teach in a German school with a significant number of students from minority or refugee backgrounds. In addition to teaching English, she plans to develop an after-school theater program that will allow students to engage creatively with and give meaning to their experiences.