Kirsten Koehler was part of the 2017-2018 AYF cohort. Today, she shares her experience in the AYF Internship Program as a student teaching assistant at St. Ursula Gymnasium – and reflects on how it supported her future career plans. Kirsten is currently a senior at UW-Madison, studying German Education through the World Languages Education (WLE) program, a 5-year program at the UW-Madison. She will graduate Spring 2020.

What I did in Freiburg: I participated in the mandatory German courses at the beginning of the year at Alpadia language school, then took a mix of courses through Uni Freiburg and AYF Program courses. I took AYF courses relating to linguistics, environmental studies, history, and, of course, the internship course.

Kirsten Koehler at the award ceremony for the AYF Alumni & Friends “Art and Writing Contest 2018”

At Uni Freiburg, I took two literature courses (one on Franz Kafka and the other on Fairytales), and one course in political science on Feminist Political Theory. I found this mix of AYF and Uni courses to be an excellent fit for me, as I was able to challenge, but not overwhelm myself (Uni courses were taught in German, with many other native or near-native speakers, and AYF courses were with other AYF participants and more closely resembled German courses I was used to taking at UW-Madison).

Future plans: I am currently in the World Language Education program at UW-Madison and want to become a German teacher. I am also planning to apply for the Fulbright Program to spend a year as an English teaching assistant in Germany after I graduate, just get more exposure to German and then I would move back to the United States and search for a job as a German teacher.

How AYF and the Internship Helped My Goals:  As a freshman at UW, I began searching for a year-long study abroad program in Germany. I had visited Germany before through a 3-week high school exchange (GAPP, German American Partnership Program), and knew that I wanted to spend more time in Germany, and a full year if I could make it work with my academics. When I learned about the Academic Year in Freiburg program and talked to past participants, it all just clicked, and I began to plan to participate in this program my Junior year. This feeling that AYF “clicked” and was just right for me continued for my entire time in Freiburg. I could not have imagined a better year for personal growth, language and cultural understanding, and professional goal refining.

My desire to teach developed sometime my sophomore year, as I prepared to leave for Freiburg, more as a realization than a decision, and I entered the School of Education at UW-Madison, while in Freiburg. This made my internship at St. Ursula Gymnasium (a private, catholic Gymnasium for girls) incredibly special, as it was my first experience working at a school. I got to work in English classes with several different cooperating teachers, ranging from the 5^th grade to the 12^th grade. Because of the variety of classes I got to assist in, I witnessed a huge breadth of instruction and second language acquisition. One thing that I found particularly interesting about the students I was working with was that the most confident English-speakers consumed high amounts of media in English via the internet (via TV shows, movies, famous YouTubers, Instagram, etc).

Another highlight of my internship was being able to witness the Abitur exam process. I worked with two different classes as they prepared for their oral proficiency exams in English, spent several weeks having conversations with them and giving them feedback on what they could work on before the exam. I also was allowed to sit in on two spoken exams (with consent of students and teachers), which is something I will remember forever. The amount of work that went into preparation for the exam and the seriousness of the exam itself were unfamiliar for me as a graduate of a US high school. This portion of the English Abitur entailed two separate spoken arguments on controversial topics. Students had to research current controversial events and opinions in English-speaking countries and be able to argue both sides of the issue (issues such as Brexit or gun control, for example). They would then receive a cartoon about the subject and explain its message and how it related to the issue in a solo monologue, then have a lengthier dialogue with their partner in which they were each assigned either the “pro” or the “con” stance.

In the recent AATG campaign for National Teach German Day, Kirsten was most fittingly tagged as a “Future German Teacher” (pictured with Meghan Meloy, right, also AYF 17-18)

I also enjoyed seeing the inner workings of St. Ursula and the ways in which it was different than the US-American school system. Teachers shared a large, open prep room, in which much of their departmental communication was done as they chatted, caught up, and planned together. It was also noteworthy that teachers travelled to their students’ classrooms, instead of students moving between rooms and positioning themselves as visitors in the instructors’ spaces. I found this flip in the dynamic particularly intriguing, and I wish that schools in the US would adopt this practice. In my experience, it made teachers utilize their space better, as they were less tied to their desk, and gave the students a certain amount of responsibility for keeping their classroom space clean and usable.

I cannot express how much I enjoyed my time at St. Ursula; I have been learning about the school system in Germany for as long as I have been taking German, and getting to experience it firsthand for four months shaped the way I view world language education, my own cultural expectations, and the concept of school in general. By building relationships with students and cooperating teachers, I was able to witness cultural practices I had not encountered in any other situation in Freiburg. I saw the power dynamics, how students conduct themselves in the school, their expectations of their teachers and teachers’ expectations of them, got to play games with them, got to watch them work and grow… it was incredible and I am very grateful to AYF for opening up this opportunity through the AYF Intership Program.

Kirsten shared her story via the AYF Alumni Profiles Project page. We welcome your contribution to our communal story telling!