Summer in Berlin

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The Virginia Military Institute, in partnership with Studienforum Berlin, is pleased to present two summer four-week programs in Berlin, the capital of Germany.

Dates: May 18-June 17, 2012

2011 Cost: $4900 (estimate) plus airfare

Fees include tuition, books, accommodation with host families, two meals/day, public transportation (pass for the subway, trams and busses), sightseeing tours in Berlin and Potsdam, excursion to Weimar and Buchenwald, museum entrance fees, as well as airport pick-up and drop-off service. International airfare is not included.

Program Director

Mrs. Patricia Hardin, who has been teaching German at VMI since 2000, will serve as the Program Director. Mrs. Hardin, who was born in communist Romania, immigrated to Germany when she was 10 years old and spent many years living, and attending school, in Germany until coming to the US to attend college at Wake Forest University in 1984. She received her Masters degree in Germanic Languages and Literatures from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Room and Board

As noted above, students will be living with German families. This allows students to practice and reinforce their German language skills with native speakers and allows them to see German culture ‘up close and personal.’ Students will share two meals a day with their German family.

General Overview

Academic Facilities

Language instruction will be provided by Die Neue Schule, one of the best known language schools in Berlin. Die Neue Schule has earned the status of a “Supplementary Private School” and is supervised by the Berlin Government. The school is located in a quiet residential area within walking distance to the heart of Berlin and to the subway stations. The modern classrooms are equipped with the latest instructional technologies.

Option 1

4 weeks of formal language and culture instruction.
The language instruction portion of the academic program will consist of four weeks of formal German language instruction (80 contact hours), at the 200- and 300-level, conducted in Berlin at the Die Neue Schule. Students who successfully complete the course of instruction will earn six credit hours in German.

Option 2

No foreign language requirement
Col Michael Hardin will be teaching two Mechanical Engineering Courses
- ME 302 - Dynamics
- ME487X - Global Engineering

Cultural Portion

The cultural portion of the academic program will consist of weekly lectures addressing specific cultural topics followed by weekly topic-specific excursions in Berlin and other German areas. As part of this cultural program, students will learn about Imperial and Nazi Germany as they visit the Jewish Museum and the Nazi concentration camp Buchenwald. They will learn about the division and re-unification of Germany as they visit the former German Democratic Museum, Checkpoint Charlie, and the Stasi prison Hohenschönhausen. They will experience the cultural life of contemporary Germany as they visit contemporary art exhibits and concerts, and shop at the most trendy boutiques and one of the largest department stores in Europe, KaDeWe. Since Berlin is the capital city of Germany, students will learn about the German government and political system through a visit to the Reichstag, the German Capital Building. Students will also visit the Sanssouci Palace, the summer residence of the Prussian King Frederick the Great, and the Cecilienhof Palace, site of the 1945 Potsdam Conference. While in Germany, students will also have the opportunity to visit many other sites, such as the Einstein Tower, an architectural marvel where Einstein conducted experiments to validate his theory of relativity.

In Berlin, some of the culture lectures, as well as some of the cultural tours, will be provided by Dr. Hanns D. Jacobsen, a long time resident of Berlin who has published extensively on international political and economic issues, including the subject of European integration.