As a German language instructor, I not only aim to teach foreign language skills in order to facilitate cross-cultural communication, but am interested in enhancing students’ sensibility for the impact of language choices on beliefs, attitudes and practices. Driven by my own experience as a foreign language learner and immigrant from Germany, I challenge students to consider how, for instance, differences in available vocabulary may affect feelings and viewpoints, so that we can understand diversity and inclusivity as a socio-political goal rooted in the linguistic.
Practicing inclusive language, however, must go hand in hand with modeling inclusive representation. To this aim, I have updated all lesson materials to better depict the heterogenous society of contemporary Germany, including examples with Afro-Germans, Asian-Germans, persons with disabilities and members of the LGBTIQA+ community. Because creating an inclusive classroom extends beyond linguistic, cultural and ethnic concerns, I also pay particular attention to different learning and test-taking preferences among my students. To better meet their needs, I have re-structured my class sessions around all language learning modalities (speaking, listening, writing, reading) as equally as possible and have re-designed assignments to cater to these preferences more fairly. For instance, to alleviate the stress that some students experience when giving an oral presentation in front of a class, I have changed the format into a group discussion lead, in which the student guides their peers through a text of relevance to the class topic, creates comprehension questions and leads the group discussion on the topic. This new format not only seems to make students a lot more comfortable, but by assessing all four language modalities, it surpasses the assessment dimensions of a standard presentation: as the group discussion leader, the student must read and comprehend the text, write exercises and discussion questions about it, and listen and spontaneously respond to peers. Thus, being mindful of students’ learning and assessment preferences led me to create an assignment that not only better meets the needs of some my students, it actually resulted in an overall superior assessment tool for all learners.
As part of my ongoing efforts to connect academic learning with real-life opportunities, I have devoted substantial energy to finding meaningful opportunities to expand my reach beyond the classroom. For the past two year, I have served as Academic Director for the study abroad program Duke in Berlin, in which I have initiated the pairing of the study abroad program with the internship program I developed for the past five years in my role as Internship Coordinator. Joining these two programs allows students to gain international work experience while being supported by the financial, medical and on-site administrative network of Duke’s team in Berlin, thus opening up this career-enhancing opportunity to a more diverse range of students than ever before. Along the same lines, I have also applied for and received a generous course enhancement grant, allowing me to prepare, test and pay for students to take the internationally recognized Goethe Institute language exam, which counts as the first step toward entering university and professional life in Germany. Most recently, I have received generous funding from the German Embassy in D.C. to organize the Germany on Campus event series in 2023 and again in 2024 in order to promote German innovation and specifically women in science, and to connect a more inclusive range of students with high-ranking industry and research professionals of global reach. Events included student-centered talks by the Volkswagen Group of America (Rob Sutschek and Gabriel Calvo), Siemens Energy (Matt Neal and Kevin Valecorsa), the Consulate General of Germany, Melanie Moltmann, and the Fraunhofer Institute (Dr. Mikael Lindvall and Dr. Marcel Schäfer).
As a member of the German Studies Department, I would welcome the opportunity to expand my passion for equalizing access to professional opportunities and bringing a more diverse range of perspectives into a position of decision-making authority. Thus far, my work outside the classroom largely aims at bridging systemic disadvantages caused by socio-economic differences. Going forward, I would like to develop these initiatives to reach first-generation students specifically: As a first-gen student myself, I particularly enjoy mentoring other first-gen students by exploring academic and professional pathways so that they may build on their determination and grit beyond their college years. Given my own experience, where I primarily had to figure out how to maneuver academic life myself, I could envision posting a sign on my office door, indicating to first-gen students that my office is a welcoming space where they may ask even the most mundane academic or professional questions.
I plan on continuing my education on diversity, equity and inclusion to add to the knowledge I have attained in the graduate seminar on DEI held by Dr. Courtnea Rainey (Duke), as well as the workshop “On Critical Race Pedagogy for More Effective and Inclusive World Language Teaching” by Dr. Uju Anja (Carnegie Mellon) and the workshop “Enhancing the Accessibility of Language Learning for Students with Disabilities” by Dr. Judit Kormos (Lancaster). I particularly hope to expand my understanding of concerns related to undocumented Americans as well as neurologically diverse students, and would like to complete the training to be a Safe Zone ally to the LGBTIQA+ campus community. Diversity training alone, however, is never enough. Fostering an inclusive community that truly values diverse voices not only means to attend to and meet the needs of all learners, however, but must also include practical support so that these voices can be heard outside of the classroom.