IES Abroad Freiburg – Language & Area Studies

I started taking German classes in high school because three years of a foreign language were required to graduate. By the second meeting, it had become my favorite class, a preference which has yet to change even seven years later.

Last summer Rice University gave 10 Intermediate German students the opportunity to take an intensive German course in Leipzig, Germany for the summer with the Roy Jones Fellowship. While I had a great time and learned a lot of German that summer, I felt like I had just started to let go of my fears of speaking German in public and of living abroad alone. That summer I had seen many great small towns in East Germany and had the opportunity to go to Italy with my Mom and sister at the end of the program. I met so many great people, took lots of photographs that I was later able to use to make great paintings, and felt I had grown so much, so I was ready to go abroad again.

Not only was it a requirement from my home school, but I’ve always wanted to go to Germany, and IES Abroad and Susquehanna University made it happen for me.