E-Union Contributors contributors
EU Center Director:
Ulli Lohrmann
Managing Editor:
Katie Smith
Design:
Katie Smith
Contributing Staff:
Ullli Lohrmann, EU Center Director
Karin Hunn, EU Center Study Trips Manager
Contributing Alumni:
Tyler Baughman, Spring 2010
Rachel Minogue, Fall 2012
Contributing Students
Adrienne Ruth, Fall 2013
Ricardo Morales, Fall 2013
Katie Smith
Managing Editor
What "Alumni" Means
After I studied abroad with IES Berlin in Spring 2011, I dreamt of returning to Germany. There were many ways to do this: receive a research scholarship, enroll in a Masters Program, Au-Pair or find an independent job. After traversing the job landscape only to find myself at too many dead ends to count, I thought that my dream of moving back to Deutschland was merely a pipedream beyond the limited grasp of an post-undergraduate student.
In this time of self doubt, I received an email, quite out-of-the-blue, from a professor at my home university, urging me to apply for an open position at the European Union Center. After tirelessly prepping my application materials, and the German interview that still terrifies me to this day, I was packing up and moving to Freiburg, Germany on a year-long contract as a student and staff assistant. What happened in this past year is not easy for me to describe, as I am just beginning to fathom what a leap of faith I took. I can say it has been the most rewarding challenge I have ever experienced, filled with untold amounts of stress, amazing adventures and plenty of self discovery.
When I first began my work here at the European Union Center, my boss, Ulli Lohrmann, urged me to start an alumni movement. He wanted the past alumni and current students to have a common meeting ground where they could share their experiences and connect with one another. How could I not be invested in this project, since it connected with me on such a personal level? I then began strengthening our presence on LinkedIn, inviting alumni to join via mass emails. I also began planning Google+ hangouts, which you can read about in more detail later on in this issue. With these new strides came an overwhelming response from alumni who wanted to share their experiences with me. The most common email closer I received, summed up, was "let me know if you need any help, I am so excited about the possibilites".
This is how E-Union was born. E-Union literally means the union of the European Union alumni on the global net. It allows for open dialogue between alumni, even though we are separated by experience, time zone and global grid lines. Most importantly, E-Union is an outlet for you to share your experience. Whether it pertains to your personal life or career path, we want to hear how the European Union Program affected you.
If you have a story you want to share, email me at [email protected]. I will collect and curate these stories for our Winter 2013 issue. If you have a critique or response to E-Union, send that to me, too. This magazine is for you, after all. I am merely the one who makes it happen.
Mit freundlichen Grüßen aus Freiburg,
Katie Smith, IES Berlin Spring 2011
Index
Index
Summer 2013 Interns on Film
Alumni Profile: Rachel Minogue
Summer 2013: A Change of Plans
Google+ Hangouts
Alumni Profile: Tyler Baughman
Comparative Law J-Term
Current Student Profiles: Ricardo Morales and Adrienne Ruth
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