Faculty and students spend summer in Regensburg, Germany

Johannes Schmidt, associate professor of German, visited the OTH Regensburg, a new partner university in Bavaria, Germany, in June 2017. The week was filled with meeting faculty, administrators, and students at the OTH as well as seeing the sights of the medieval historic center of the city. In Regensburg he saw three Clemson students, the first group to study at Regensburg. The week also included a visit to Infineon, a large semiconductor company where Clemson Computer Science student Dani Durham interned for a semester. Jennifer Rogers (Language and International Trade, German) spent the summer semester at Regensburg and will return in the fall to begin an internship with Mercedes Benz. Andrea Wiggins (Modern Languages, German) will stay in Regensburg for another semester.

While in Regensburg, “Herr” Schmidt not only promoted Clemson as a study abroad destination for Regensburg students but also gave two guest lectures. “German Economy and Culture in the USA” was presented in German and discussed the historical influence of German culture and Germany’s business presence in the US today, as exemplified by businesses in Upstate South Carolina. Two major German companies with ties to Clemson University were used as case studies. The lecture/workshop “Holocaust Education in the US” — delivered in English — informed attendees what kind of information and how material related to the Shoah is presented in US middle and high schools as well as colleges and universities. The participants also researched and discussed the strong engagement of institutions and museums (like the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.) regarding the topic.

The current partnership agreement is to be extended to a full study abroad and faculty exchange program. After his visit, Schmidt said, “The OTH was extremely welcoming and made my visit enjoyable and very informative. I now feel even better sending our students to Regensburg.”