Applying a love of German language, culture

After her junior year in high school, Holly Yanacek spent six weeks in Germany as a foreign-exchange student. Next fall, the sophomore German and education major will return to the city she fell in love with.

 

Holly has received a $1,000 scholarship from the Ohio Foreign Language Association to assist with her study as a student in the American Junior Year program at Heidelberg University in Heidelberg, Germany. Language majors at Heidelberg are required to have a study-abroad experience.

 

 

The scholarship was awarded based on Holly’s outstanding academic record and enthusiasm for teaching. Her adacemic advisor, Dr. Cynthia Lepeley, encouraged her to apply for the award.

 

 

During her year as an AJY student, she’s looking forward to improving her linguistic and cultural knowledge, and using those to enhance her teaching skills. After graduation, she has plans to teach – either in the U.S. or abroad.

 

 

“I definitely know I want to teach. I just don’t know whether it’ll be here or abroad,” she said. “i’m basically open to anything.” She’d also like to pursue graduate studies in foreign languages, learn a third language and pursue her research interests in adolescent social development.

 

 

This semester, Holly has shared that enthusiasm for the German language and culture with fourth- and sixth-graders at St. Joseph Catholic School, where she goes once a week to teach them German language skills as part of her Honors Program service learning experience. She also was hired by the Tiffin Public Schools to teach German to middle school students as part of the district’s International Study Center. She admits, however, that the experience has been so exceptional that “I would have done it for free!”

 

 

 

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