Dickinson Hosts Conference In Bremen

Dickinson students participate in a Resident Directors Conference hosted by the Durden Dickinson Bremen Program

View from the venue onto the river Weser and onto the city center

View from the venue onto the river Weser and onto the city center © Anneke ter Veen

On November 11th and 12th, 2016, the Dickinson Durden Bremen Program hosted the annual conference of the Association of American Study Abroad Programs in Germany (AASAP). 27 members of the association, plus speakers and students, met at the guest house of the University of Bremen “Auf dem Teerhof 58,” which was purchased in the 1980s with the support of Dickinson College. The venue is beautifully located on an island in the river Weser.

Keynote speaker Neil van Siclen (CSDAC)

Keynote speaker Neil van Siclen (CSDAC) © Anneke ter Veen

The participants, representing different German-American study abroad institutions from all over Germany, discussed trends and goals in study abroad. The keynote speaker, Neil van Siclen, President of the Carl Schurz German-American Club (CSDAC) in Bremen, presented an insightful meta-study on motivations of American students for studying abroad (in Germany). Please find the conference program, van Siclen’s presentation, and a video here:

RD Programm 2016 final

Neil van Siclen Presentation RD Conference

 © Anneke ter Veen, CompanyTeeVee

 

Student Workshop: One Month at Uni Bremen – Student Experiences

The exchange of experiences between program directors helps them to strive towards improving their programs and adapting to new trends and situations. Thus, one of the highlights of the conference was a workshop with 6 Dickinson students who are currently spending their junior year abroad at the University of Bremen: Katelyn King, Yelyzaveta Konovalova, Zhen Luo, Lee Mottola, Caroline Pappalardo, and Meghan Straub talked to the participants about their experiences, motivations, and strategies in three different areas: 1. Expectations and Reasons for Choosing Germany, 2. Cultural Matters. First Impressions, 3. Academic Matters. First Impressions of Courses.

Janine Ludwig and the Dickinson students before their panel

Moderator Janine Ludwig (next to the Dickinson students) explains the format of the rotating talks before the panel

Student panel - Meghan (l.) and Zhen (r.) speaking with the participants (4)

Student panel – Meghan (l.) and Zhen (r.) speaking with the participants (4)

Student panel - Liza and Lee speaking with the participants

Student panel – Liza and Lee speaking with the participants

After the roating talks, the participants who had written flip chart posters, presented summaries of their talks with the students. They were very impressed with the Dickinson students, not only with the great German they spoke, but also with the interesting reflections they shared.

Student panel - summary of the talks with the students

Student panel – summary of the talks with the students

Student panel - summary of the talks with the students (2)

Student panel – summary of the talks with the students (2)

Please find the student statement summaries here:

DiB RD Conference Student Workshop – English JL

 

 

 

In the evening, the participants and students took part in the Bremen lantern walk for St. Martin’s day and had dinner together.

St. Martin`s day - Kate (l.) and Liza (r.) with conference particpiants on lantern walk Lichtermeer

St. Martin`s day – Kate (l.) and Liza (r.) with conference particpiants on lantern walk Lichtermeer

Dinner after the first conference day - students with participants

Dinner after the first conference day – students with participants

The William G. and Elke Durden Dickinson in Bremen Program – represented by the Academic Director Dr. Janine Ludwig and the Program Coordinator Verena Mertz – and the AASAP, represented by Chief Executive Dr. Kurt Gamerschlag, would like to thank Neil van Siclen (CSDAC), Dr. Annette Lang, Head of the International Office of the University of Bremen, the participants, and our students for making this a successful conference!

Verena Mertz, Kurt Gamerschlag (AASAP), Neil van Siclen (CSDAC), Anette Lang (Uni Bremen), Janine Ludwig (from left to right)

Verena Mertz, Kurt Gamerschlag (AASAP), Neil van Siclen (CSDAC), Annette Lang (Uni Bremen), Janine Ludwig (from left to right) © Anneke ter Veen

Emigration Museum: an Adventure Through Time and Genealogy

by Kate King

Most people familiar with the German Department at Dickinson are aware that in Bremen full year students take one Dickinson course taught by Dr. Ludwig, better known as Janine, our academic director. The course is a cultural comparison of Germany and the USA. In our first few classes, we discussed emigration from Germany to the USA, which began in the late 1600’s and continued, usually in waves depending on what was going on in Europe, for the next few hundred years.

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Kayla, Yvonne, Meghan, Caroline, Lee (fr.l.t.r.), back row: Janine, Fynn, Zhen, Siyun

IMG_0336To learn more about this, we took a field trip to Bremerhaven (the second city of the Bremen city-state) to visit the Deutsches Auswanderer Haus, or German Emigration Center. Bremen bought Bremerhaven in 1827 to replace its inland ports that were at risk from sediment deposition and it quickly became a hot spot for emigration due to the quick access to the North Sea and Atlantic Ocean.

Me, Kate

Me, Kate

Now if anyone reading this knows me, you probably know that I am a double science major and I minor in German for the language skills – I do not enjoy museums. I am like a three-year-old child in museums: if you don’t keep my attention with interactive things, I get tired and hungry and just want to go home. This museum catered to my inner toddler. Upon arrival, we were all issued boarding passes with the name of an emigrant of Germany and another name of an immigrant that came to Germany.

 

Caroline before departure

Caroline and friends

We started the tour by entering a replica of the waiting hall, which was part of the original emigration office that millions of people went through to leave Europe.

We were then guided into the next room to the docks where heard farewells from families. The next room, the Gallery of the 7 Million, allowed us to hear the personal stories of our emigrants. We then climbed the stairs of the ship seen from the docks and entered the ship to begin our voyage.

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Caroline and Meghan

Kayla

Kayla

We ended up walking through different points in technological developments. The first had a small room, close to a double dorm room on Dickinson’s campus, with most of the room being built up into a bed with hay, a bucket, and no electricity. The room would have been shared by multiple families. The next stage had more of individualized bunk beds and a bathroom. The final stage had individual beds with proper sheets and an attached dining room with windows, all with electricity.

Ship in rough sea...

Ship in rough sea…

 

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Poor emigrants: Meghan, Zhen, Kayla, Kate (fr.l.)

Caroline and Lee emigrating

Caroline and Lee emigrating

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Everyone at the dinner table of the steam liner

After we enjoyed our dinner with the passengers, we arrived in the New World. We were taken to Ellis Island where we were tested to see if we could enter the country. If we passed (Lee did not), we could continue to New York City to Grand Central Station. At Grand Central we listened to the end of our emigrants’ stories. Mine emigrated to Brazil and opened a tea company and the descendants still meet up regularly.

Several Bremens in the USA

Blue dots = Several Bremens in the USA…

The seminar group at Grand Central Station

The seminar group at Grand Central Station

After leaving Grand Central, we crossed the bridge and became immigrants into Germany. This area had replicas of different shops that were opened by immigrants in the 1950’s-70’s. There was an ice cream café, hair dresser, camera shop, book shop, department store, kiosk, and cinema. The cinema showed films about immigration in Germany, but they were showing a feature while we were there that looked at relationships between Turks and Germans.

Katie's possible ancestors

Katie’s possible ancestors

My favorite part of the whole tour was the family history room at the end. You could look through their computer records and find your family members. A few of us came prepared with names. I had photos of a genealogy book that someone in my family had put together not too long after I was born. So I went to the oldest name I could find and traced it back another two generations. The book I had said that he came from Switzerland, but the information I found through the ancestry.com portal said that he was born in Zweibrücken, which is close to where I lived when I did my exchange year in high school, and his father was born in Hannover in 1681, which is right next to Bremen. It is definitely something that I want to investigate further. Hopefully, I can find some living German relatives.

Animated photo show:

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