Twentieth Year Jubiläum
On May 2nd, 2017 the German Group together with some 55 students of German, Ian Condry, and invited guests, celebrated the 20th anniversary of the Excellence Award for German Studies. Sponsored by GSL and MISTI-Germany, the Award honors students who exhibit strong language skills and creativity in the study of German language and culture in courses at MIT.
Guests of honor and supporters of the German program at MIT included Ralf Horlemann, Consul General of German Consulate General Boston, Christoph Mücher, Director of the Goethe Institute, as well as Jonas Braunschwig from Swissnex Boston and Elizabeth von Wagner, Culture and Press, German Consulate General Boston.
Markus Buehler, McAfee Professor of Engineering and Faculty Director of the MIT-Germany Program and Erin Schenck, Managing Director, presented this year’s first prize, a round trip flight to Germany sponsored by MIT Germany, to Melinda Szabo ’19 who completed Bettina Stoetzer’s course “Migration, Race and Ethnicity in a New Europe and Germany” in Fall 2016. A second prize was awarded to Riley Davis ’19 currently in Bettina Stoetzer’s course “Cultural Geographies of Germany: Nature, Culture and Politics” and majoring in German. Second prize was also awarded to Nicolas Amato ’19 currently attending Sandra Ward’s German II course. A special second prize was awarded to Jason Wong, Grad who attended Kurt Fendt’s course “German Culture, Media and Society” in Fall 2016.
Out of the 51 entries for the Excellence Award from all German course levels of AY 16/17, a third prize was awarded to James Deng ’17, Zoya Fan ’19, Esther Goldberger ’18, Tyndale Hannan ’20, Kaleigh Hunt ’20, Sophia Reyes-Hadsall ’17, Andrew Titus ’17, and Cassia Wang ’20. Congratulations to everyone!
There was a special moment in which former Award winners Suma Anand ’17 and Ian Tracy ’11 spoke to the assembled students about the opportunities that have opened up for them having studied German. The celebration concluded with Laugenbrötchen catered by SwissBäkers.