Maggie Fischer Receives AYF Alumni & Friends Achievement Award 2019

By Kimberly Mueller, Chair, AYF Alumni & Friends e.V.

At last summer’s AYF Farewell BBQ, Maggie Fischer (U Iowa, AYF 18-19) received the AYF Alumni & Friends Achievement Award 2019. Kimberly, Chair of the German Chapter of the AYF Alumni club, presented the award at the AYF Farewell BBQ in Freiburg.  Here are excerpts from her awards speech.

Hello, my name is Kimberly Mueller. I am the chair of the AYF Alumni-Club in Freiburg. We are the European Chapter of YOUR Alumni-Club, and we are very excited about our hopefully many future members and supporters. We are also very excited that 16 of you have joined our American Club Chapter. I would like to offer a very warm welcome in particular to the six new members of our Freiburg Club Chapter „AYF Alumni & Friends“:  Eva, Tim, Maggie, Zoe, Laura, and Courtney. Welcome friends!

The purpose of this post, however, is to discuss the „AYF Alumni & Friends Achievement Award 2019“.

This is the fourth time that we are giving this annual award. For the selection process, we have relied on the trusted advice and nominations given by Ulli and Kerstin, who have both accompanied all of you throughout the entire year and witnessed your incredible progress. I must say that it was extremely difficult to decide on a single recipient for this award. You all learned and progressed in so many different ways that you all should be very proud of yourself.

This year we received the following written nomination from Kerstin and Ulli:

„Last September, when Maggie Fischer arrived in Freiburg, she described her German skills as very weak and insufficient for the year ahead of her. Instead of accepting defeat in the face of the difficulties before her, Maggie took on the challenges of learning the language, adjusting to Freiburg student life, and engaging in intercultural exchange wholeheartedly. In the AYF office, Maggie always spoke to us in German, even when she found it difficult to do so. She tirelessly pursued contact with native speakers, and even dared to take PH and Uni-courses in German. On top of all of this, she not only managed to pass her seminars, but did so with flying colors. Her dedication to learning German along with her drive to create connections between American and German Culture impressed us greatly. She has made enormous progress linguistically and academically and has improved the year for all of us with her passion and determination.”

The teaching staff, too, had many positive things to say about Maggie and her achievements. Professor Raith said: „Magie along with her classmates gave a superb presentation about the English-speaking world, which made us consider the differences in the ability to express emotions in English and German.

In her Hausarbeit, she laid out an impressive analysis of a certain topic, beloved by students and language teachers alike: Rap and Hip Hop. She examined the titles used to describe women in rap and the connotations associated with these terms.“

Yet another teacher, Frau Nasarek, corroborated Maggie’s outstanding achievements: „I’m very glad that Maggie was nominated for this award! She impressed me greatly. Maggie always brought fresh and gripping perspectives to class. She clearly had a knack for all things art and was a self-described theater lover. Her ability to communicate and express herself creatively was especially evident whenever she worked in groups, where she always was a catalyst for deep conversation.

You definitely have a very unique individual here, who not only understands how to work academically, but who is always excited to work creatively with other people. Only someone with an extremely positive charisma is capable of this.“

Whenever and whoever we asked about Maggie, we received wonderful comments and stories.

It is truly my honor to award Maggie Fischer the „ 2019 AYF Alumni & Friends Achievement Award“ on behalf of the club.

Herzlichen Glückwunsch, Maggie!