Highlights from our German and American Alumni Clubs

Our alumni clubs in the United States (AYF Alumni Association (AYFAA)) and in Germany (AYF Alumni & Friends) continue to grow and develop, along with their efforts to support AYF students here in Freiburg.

This year, the two clubs were once again able to provide five students from the current group with a $500 Gentry Scholarship or Alumni Club Scholarship each – that’s a total of $2,500 in scholarships that supports students while they are studying in Freiburg, which is certainly something to be proud of! The photo above shows the five recipients together with AYF Alumni & Friends board member Kayla Draheim at the presentation during orientation, assisted by Ulli Struve.

Kim Mueller leading a tour of Staufen

Covid-19 has luckily been much less of a presence that dominates every aspect of our daily lives. The German club has been able to meet and mingle with this year’s students at the Welcome Pizza Party and by offering alumni-sponsored events, most recently a wintry trip to the “Faust-Stadt” Staufen in cooperation with the Freiburg-Madison-Gesellschaft, where our own Club Chair, Kim Mueller, gave a tour.

In her wide-ranging tour, Kim covered everything from how Faust lost his life to the devil in the Gasthaus zum Löwen, so it is said, spoke about how Staufen became known as the “Rissestadt” (a geothermal development mishap of epic proportions), and addressed the Badische Revolution of 1848 were Gustav Struve played a prominent role

Zum Löwen where Faust is said to have met his end

(no relation to our AYF Program Director, much to Ulli’s chagrin). To round out the event, we finished the evening in Staufen at a very “urige Kneipe”, the Rombach-Scheuer.

Further, both the German and American club continue to sponsor events during the annual trip to Berlin, which is always a big highlight of the year. This year, all but one of our 27 students have signed up to participate in the annual field trip to the capital, which is scheduled for the last week of May. For anyone who is in Berlin at the time, we would be happy if you joined us for the Alumni Lunch, scheduled for Saturday. Please send an email to info@ayf.uni-freiburg.de for details.

Our German club hopes to be able to start up its monthly Stammtisch for students starting in the spring. Our American club continues to offer a regular Virtual Stammtisch. Alumni and students can join these meetings from anywhere in the world via Zoom.

The Virtual Stammtische for 2023 are scheduled on the following dates, generally at 8 p.m. (CET, i.e., Freiburg time). This year, different meeting times are being considered for some Stammtische to accommodate alumni who live in Asia – stay tuned for details. Mark your calendars for the following dates:

• February 26
• April 23
• June 18
• August 27
• October 22
• December 3

If you are interested in attending a Stammtisch, please contact Doug Koschik for details and a Zoom link.

Please visit the club chapter websites to find out more about different ways to connect:

https://www.ayf-alumni.de/ – for the German Chapter AYF Alumni & Friends e.V.
https://ayf-alumni.com/ – for the US Chapter AYF Alumni Association