Loudoun Valley High School in Purcellville, Virginia, sits less than 10 miles away from the West Virginia border, and a bus trip to the George Mason University Fairfax Campus can take more than an hour slogging through weekday traffic.
But Loudoun Valley teacher Teresa Breitenthaler didn’t want to pass up on the opportunity for her students to participate at German Day at George Mason, hosted by the Department of Modern and Classical Languages in March.
“I think it is important for my students to see German exists beyond my classroom,” Breitenthaler said. “There are job opportunities out there. I brought a group of juniors and seniors, so if they can use their German behind high school, I would be thrilled.”
More than 150 high school students at six Fairfax County and Loudoun County public schools attended the fifth annual German Day, by far the largest turnout, said Natalia Dudnik, German professor and German Program coordinator said. The high school students, who take German classes at their schools, were welcomed in conjunction with the German Embassy in Washington D.C.
“It is a nice break from the everyday class,” said Larry Schwartz, a German teacher at Mount Vernon High School in Alexandria. “They can see German in action, different things you can do with a German language that is career related, maybe outside of academics. And it is a fun time for them to meet other students, look around a college campus, and play some games, too.”
The embassy’s Germany on Campus program provided lunch, along with German Lego cars the students built during a breakout session. In addition, students in the German Studies program provided campus tours for the high school students.
George Mason mechanical engineering major and German studies minor Margaret Ginman delivered a presentation on the German automobile industry and led a trivia contest.
“Maggie is our poster child,” Dudnik said. “It doesn’t have to be in engineering, but she is willing to invest in German. You’re going to broaden your job prospects on the global market. We want to highlight what majors German is a great addition to.”
The embassy also arranged for guest speaker Astrid Schulte, the director of U.S. trade policy for the government affairs for BMW. Schulte encouraged the high school students and college students in attendance to seek out internships and explore what career paths fluency in German can lead to.
She highlighted George Mason alum Andrea Lueder, BA Global Affairs ’22, who served as an intern at the BMW government and external affairs team under Schulte. She now works at Autos Drive America as a public affairs manager.
“BMW has a mission of making sure we hear from our future leaders, particularly on a lot of these now global issues,” Schulte said. “We’re happy to help the students as they navigate their career paths. As a student, I felt that I wanted to do something on an international level; I wanted to utilize my German. When I graduated school, I wasn’t quite sure what that meant. I thought maybe that was working for various consulting firms, working for their German office. That’s where I realized there are so many opportunities on the U.S. side.”
