Wittenberg’s own study-abroad program offers students the chance to connect with the university’s Lutheran heritage and gain international work experience.
By Leigh Hall ’13
Katherine Touzinsky ’12 always dreamed of studying abroad, but the biology major from Columbus, Ohio, thought her coursework and busy lab schedule would never allow it – until she heard about the Wittenberg in Wittenberg program, a semester-long study-abroad opportunity in Germany in which science majors could work with a local engineering company that designed environmentally focused innovative technology solutions.
“It was far outside of my realm of experience, but for a study-abroad experience, it was exactly what I was looking for,” she recalls. “As soon as I learned about the internship, I decided to commit to a semester in Germany.”
Once she arrived in Wittenberg’s sister city, however, Touzinsky found out that her initial internship plans fell through due to changes at the company. Instead, the program manager had secured an incredible position for her at the German Biomass Research Center (DBFZ), a federally funded laboratory dedicated to integrating biomass as a resource for sustainable energy supply.
“It was extremely intimidating to walk into a federal lab for the first time and be handed a white lab coat and gloves and be expected to contribute toward valuable research,” Touzinsky recalls. “There was palpable energy and motivation in the halls – the kind of energy that can be gained from working on truly groundbreaking research to find solutions that are going to extend the life of our planet and improve our children’s lives. When I was first handed a pipette and asked to measure and fill capsules for culturing bacteria, I completely forgot how to use it. It took me a few minutes to regain my composure and remind myself that I’d learned this all before in my classroom labs at Wittenberg, and that I knew how to do each and every one of these laboratory assays. I picked up the pipette and got to work." Since 2011, the university’s Wittenberg in Wittenberg program has enabled students like Touzinsky to experience groundbreaking opportunities and extend their first-rate liberal arts education in the heart of Germany.
After the city of Lutherstadt Wittenberg spent much of the 1990s renovating old university buildings, the Lord Mayor visited Wittenberg University, inviting the school to encourage students to spend more time there in an effort to rejuvenate its historic reputation as one of the most celebrated academic centers in Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries.
“We had this window of opportunity to devote something for not just German students,” said Tim Bennett, professor of German and chair of the department of languages. “Any student can go, and any faculty can go. This is our heritage, and we realized that everyone needs this sort of crossing-the-border moment.”
With immeasurable support from the city, the university developed its own distinctive study-abroad opportunity, designed to be academically and financially accessible. From there, the Wittenberg in Wittenberg program was born. Each spring semester since 2011, a group of students and a faculty member from Wittenberg University have studied, worked and lived in Lutherstadt Wittenberg.
Unlike most study-abroad opportunities, Wittenberg’s program offers tuition exchange, which allows students to maintain all of their financial aid while studying at Colleg Wittenberg, taking rigorous language courses from Universtät Halle-Wittenberg professors and intensive culture courses from their Wittenberg professor. With no foreign language prerequisites, the program enables students from all disciplines to participate. So far 20 out of Wittenberg’s 31 majors have been represented.
Those who participate undergo a rich cultural immersion throughout their stay, the quality and depth of which is evidenced by the unparalleled access and opportunities students have as they explore Wittenberg’s Lutheran heritage, grow as responsible global citizens, discover their callings and pursue their passions.
“The history of Lutherstadt Wittenberg is, in a way, the history of Wittenberg University,” explains Jon Drewsen ’14 from Fond du Lac, Wis. “To offer a relationship between city and college to the students and to grant students the opportunity to explore the roots of its namesake is a learning experience no other study-abroad program from any other university can offer. Studying in Lutherstadt Wittenberg is truly a Wittenberg experience.”
Eagerly welcomed each year by the city and introduced to new Wittenberg cultures and traditions, it’s no wonder students quickly feel at home more than 4,000 miles from campus.
“The fact that these complete strangers, whom I could barely communicate with, welcomed me into their home and treated me as family touched me in a way that I will never forget,” said Virginia Bond ’14 from Germantown, Ohio. “It encompassed the same feeling I felt coming to Wittenberg my freshman year.”
According to Dave Barry, professor of languages, the school’s heritage and foundation in Wittenberg makes the depth of this “astonishing experience” and connection with German citizens possible.
“What drives it is that there’s something particularly dear to them that they’re working with people from Wittenberg University,” he explains.
Not only are students enthusiastically welcomed to spend time with host families and travel throughout the region, but they are also welcomed to various internship sites, including the Mayor’s office, Unilever, the Center for Global Ethics, local artisan workshops, travel agencies, family businesses, medical and research labs, and the local news stations.
Future educators, who are able to navigate rigid academic requirements through this program, experience exceptional internships in German schools; those in a pre-law track work in German courtrooms; those in a pre-med track conduct research in German hospitals, and the list continues. From these opportunities, students gain professional enrichment that prepares them for challenging and exciting vocations.
For Touzinsky, her internship experience at DBFZ was life-changing; it sparked an interest in sustainability and interdisciplinary problems as she gained confidence in her abilities and pride in her Wittenberg education, which prepared her to contribute to an interdisciplinary team comprised of engineers, biologists, chemists, economists and social scientists.
After graduating in 2012, Touzinsky accepted a graduate fellowship in an interdisciplinary Ecological Sciences and Engineering program at Purdue University, learning how to think about and tackle tough problems such as climate change, resource depletion, and water resource issues. In 2013, she chaired a symposium that brought representatives from academia, government, and private industry to discuss a future plan for economic and environmental sustainability.
Now Touzinsky is working in Washington D.C., for the Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship, sponsored through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Placed with the Army Corps of Engineers, one of the world’s largest public engineering, design, and construction management agencies, Touzinsky acts as a technical advisor for the director of Civil Works Research and Development, a role that provides her the chance to see some of the leading green infrastructure and engineering projects from across the nation.
“The opportunities that I have had thus far have been remarkable. I never could have dreamed that my passions would lead me to Washington, D.C., and that the Army Corps would be a dream job. I truly believe that most of my success can be attributed to the lessons I learned during that last-minute decision to go to Germany. If you see something that you want to try, roll up your sleeves, put on your gloves, and dig in.”