Meine HiWi-Stelle ging darum, den Informationsverlust bei verschränkten Lichtteilchen (Photonen) zu erforschen. Man hat (theoretisch) Informationen auf Lichtteilchen gespeichert und die Teilchen in der ‘Atmosphäre’ von einem Punkt zum Andern geschossen.

“My work as a research assistant involved researching the loss of information in photons. Theoretically, we stored information in photons and then shot them from one point in the ‘atmosphere’ to another.”

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As a part of my honors thesis in German, which focused on the implications of ambiguity in poetry in the transmission of multidimensional political messages in the GDR, I studied the works of Carlfriedrich Claus, a German artist experimenting with visual and concrete poetry.

The study grant the Department of German awarded me made it possible for me to travel to Chemnitz, Germany, and visit Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz, Stiftung Carlfriedrich Claus-Archiv, which are the archives with the collected works of Carlfriedrich Claus. There I could research his visual poetry thoroughly, decipher some of the text he used in his works, study some of the correspondence of the artist — in which he described his work — and ask questions about and discuss his art with the workers at the archives.

In addition to this, the visit at the archives has improved my personal and intellectual development, as it has raised my interest in East German literature and art, and has improved my understanding of the political context from which they emerged. This subject area has also become the defining focus of my German Studies, and the study grant has given me the opportunity to get a more complex and personal experience with it.

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I used my study grant to spend a month working in Germany and Switzerland, first doing homestays in central Germany before working in a German-speaking preschool in Switzerland.

During my two homestays, I first stayed in a mid-sized town and next worked on a rural farm.  I spent the second half of my time living with a Swiss family in Zürich, where I worked as a teacher in a preschool and was able to observe differences between Swiss and German culture, as well as between Swiss and American culture.

Throughout my experience, I communicated primarily in German and significantly improved my language skills while learning about life in both Germany and Switzerland!

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From January 13 to March 21, 2014 I worked as a research intern at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. My work involved setting up a laser system for Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) for use on testing the consistency of Lithium-Ion Battery material, as well as creating the battery materials in question by using a specialized procedure developed at KIT.

In the time that I spent in Karlsruhe, my German greatly improved, especially my listening comprehension. This head start was very noticeable to me in the time that I spent on the Freiburg Study Group and it has provided me with the confidence and foundation to my German studies to new heights.

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Grüß Gott!

With the Colgate German Department’s help, I spent time this past summer studying in Vienna, Austria. Not only did my German get much stronger through the course and the immersion, I had my first real experience living in a German-speaking city, and a beautiful one at that.

Due to Vienna’s central location, I was able to travel around Europe and see some amazing cities, such as Salzburg, Prague and Bratislava. I made many friends from across the world who I still keep up with, and one of them is even coming to visit me over winter break this year to see America for the first time.

I am very grateful to everyone who was a part of helping me have this amazing experience!

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