Outreach
I consider it an important part of my role as an educator to show students ways to interact with course material outside of the classroom. Throughout the semester, I promote engagement with German music, films, podcasts, websites, and newspapers as a way to connect with the culture and language. I also seek to engage students in activities on campus that can expand their access to and connection with the German language and culture. In addition to promoting the German language and culture, I also like to promote linguistics and language in general on campus, supporting such events as the Young Scholar Speaker Series and Poetry without Borders.
Below you can find descriptions of some of the events I have organized or for which I have volunteered.
German Filmabend (movie night)
From 2017-2018, I organized a weekly German Filmabend, where contemporary and classic German films were played for the public. This effort received the generous support of Penn State's Department of Germanic and Slavic Languages and Literatures.
High School German Day
Penn State's High School German Day is an annual event promoting the study of the German language and German culture. There are many events and activities, in which visiting high school students can participate, including a spelling bee, poetry recitation, geography bee, poster presentations, and mock German lectures. In the past, I have helped judge various events, including the spelling bee and poetry recitations. I have also helped with participant recruitment.
Guest Speaking at Local Schools
During my time at Penn State, I have had the opportunity to speak to local middle and high school classes on various topics, including German dialects and working as a linguist. These presentations have offered me the opportunity to promote the study of both German and linguistics at the university level, while also promoting the university in general.
Young Scholar Speaker Series (YSSS)
As a member of the YSSS organization committee, I worked with my fellow committee members to solicit speaker nominations from graduate students of Penn State's Center for Language Science (CLS), organize voting on the nominees, invite the chosen speaker (Dr. Yan Jing Wu of Shenzhen University), and organize the speaker’s stay at Penn State.
For more information about the Young Scholar Speaker Series, click here.
Poetry without Borders
Penn State’s annual Poetry without Borders is a university-wide poetry event, where students and faculty expose attendees to different languages and cultures through poetry-readings. The goal of the event is to bring together people with different cultural and linguistic backgrounds and to introduce them to new languages and cultures in a fun and accessible manner. The event has featured readings from German, Spanish, French, Polish, Hebrew, Chinese, Turkish, and many others. I have volunteered my time for this event by reading poems in Gottscheerisch and Slovenian.
For more information about Poetry without Borders, click here.