Summer in Berlin

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.

Program Option 1: German Language Program

• 4 weeks of formal language and culture instruction.
•  Room and Board
  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.

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.

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.

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.

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 as well as cities such as Dresden, previously under the “iron curtain.” 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.

The program also offers one optional weekend excursion to the Southwestern part of Germany as well as to the Alsace region in France. This optional excursion includes a day trip to the Black Forest for the customary German hiking (Wandern). The group will take a car ferry across the famous Rhine River. The first stop on this day trip is a
guided tour at the Maginot Line Museum followed by a visit to Colmar, a typical Alsacien city. There, the group will visit the museum of Auguste Bartholdi, creator of the Statue of Liberty and will dine on the typical meal of Tarte Flambée (Flammenkuchen).

Program Option 2: Engineering Program

No foreign language requirement

Col Michael Hardin will be teaching two Mechanical Engineering Courses

ME-302 - Dynamics
ME-487X - Global Engineering

List of excursion in conjunction with the Global Engineering class:
Science Park Adlershof
BMW Motorcycle Plant
Siemens
Transparent VW Factory in Dresden, Germany
Technical University Berlin
Frauenhofer Institute of Production Systems and Design Technology
Museum of German Technology

Room and Board

Students will be living with German families who speak English. This allows students to see German culture “up close and personal.” Students will share two meals a day with their German family.

Academic Facilities

The engineering classroom is located in a quiet residential area within walking distance to the heart of Berlin and to the subway stations.

As part of the engineering 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 as well as cities such as Dresden, previously under the “iron curtain.” 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 alsovisit the Sanssouci Palace, the summer residence of the Prussian King Frederick the Great, and the Cecilienhof Palace, site of the 1945 Potsdam Conference.

The program also offers one optional weekend excursion to the Southwestern part of Germany as well as to the Alsace region in France. This optional excursion includes a day trip to the Black Forest for the customary German hiking (Wandern). The group will take a car ferry across the famous Rhine River. The first stop on this day trip is a guided tour at the Maginot Line Museum followed by a visit to Colmar, a typical Alsacien city. There, the group will visit the museum of Auguste Bartholdi, creator of the Statue of Liberty and will dine on the typical meal of Tarte Flambée (Flammenkuchen).