Experience of a lifetime

Internship in Germany Program

My experience this summer at the Excellence Center in Europe has easily been one of the best decisions I have made in my lifetime. During my time at the Excellence Center, I volunteered to teach English and had German courses throughout each week. My students for English included refugees from Syria and Ukraine. The Excellence Center’s German courses and objectives for the refugee community in Halle initially attracted me to this program, however the necessity to travel alone to a place where I knew nobody kept me from immediately making the decision to apply. Through my experience, I’ve found that this internship is one of the best ways to acclimatize yourself to travelling alone. This is because the center almost always places you in housing where other people live, which gave me the chance to immediately bond with the other participants and get to know an unfamiliar city in a unique way. Also, the center’s daily routine is very structured, and during the week you always have a place to go in the morning for breakfast, conversation, and bonding. After breakfast, I felt that I had so much freedom to do work, complete tasks for the center, and lesson plan for students. Lesson planning for students was a special experience because I was given the opportunity to get to know students on a deeper level, and then tailor lessons to what they would like to get out of English language learning.
There is a huge sense of community at the Excellence Center, and the bonds I have made with volunteers and students are ones that will last a lifetime. The Center’s director and main teachers do an amazing job at fostering this sense of community. First, learning German at the Center was always fun and interactive with learning strategies such as creative games and improv. It’s different from papers and lectures, and more aimed at connecting with each other through a foreign language. Also, the Center’s weekly football games and cookouts gave us all a chance to unwind from the week and have fun with each other.
The immediate welcome, sense of safety, and care I felt from the Excellence Center was an irreplaceable feeling. I consider the city of Halle a new home, and because of this and the amazing people I’ve met, I will always look for this feeling in my future travels.