University of Mount Union, Alliance, Ohio, US

Role: German language teaching assistant and exchange student

University of Mount Union is located in the city of Alliance, Ohio, or “The Carnation City”. It is a four-year private, co-ed liberal arts college with over 2,000 undergraduate students and has been ranked consistently as a top college in the Midwest. 

Mount Union offers 60 majors and a wide variety of minors and programmes with an “integrative core“ of foundational courses that aid the development of complex thinking and effective communication skills. It also offers pre-professional programmes in pre-health professions (pre-medicine), pre-law, nursing and pre-ministry, and in Army Reserve Officers' Training Corps, as well as a master of science in physician assistant studies and a master of arts in educational leadership.

The school has a radio station, 91.1 WRMU. Students may become involved in many kinds of bands or choir. The theatre department puts on several productions a year. There are also four major social fraternities and four major social sororities with chapters at the institution. The Mount Union Purple Raiders football team has won a record 11 Division III national championships since 1993.

The German major is administered by the Department of Foreign Languages and Cultures, which also offers programmes in Chinese, French, Japanese and Spanish. Dr. Mark Himmelein, professor of German and department chair of foreign language at Mount Union, believes that culture-based language instruction, as opposed to merely memorising rules and repeating phrases, teaches students not only the language but also intercultural skills that enable them to deal more effectively with their own and other cultures.