Statements and Lectures

Harald Dertinger (CDS)
Ways to guide young adults to thinking in international dimensions

Good afternoon,

My name is Harald Dertinger and although I am living in Altoona, PA now I am originally from Würzburg, Bavaria. Coincidentally, 5 miles to the South of Würzburg Sommerhausen is located, the birthplace of Franz Daniel Pastorius, the leader of the first German settlers in 1683, founder of Germantown, PA and friend of William Penn.

Nine years ago I lived just 45 min Southwest from here. It was my first time in the US, and that was as a participant of the Congress Bundestag Exchange Program for young Professionals, organized by the German Carl Duisberg Gesellschaft (CDG) and the American CDS.

The program includes College attendance (August until X-mas 1990) and working from January until June 1991 (I found a position with brokerage firm downtown Chicago). Most program participants also get to stay with host-families, which provides them with a unique experience of American family life.

To many participants the Congress Bundestag Exchange Program is a defining time regarding later professional choices. For some, like myself, it ultimately even results in finding spouse and a new family & life on this side of the Atlantic.

I applaud the concept of real "submersion" into the US-culture by the exposure to College, work

and US-family environment. Assuming an open mind and non-judgemental attitude on the participant's part a genuine, balanced and enriching US-experience is not just possible but indeed likely.

The topic I have chosen today involves ways to guide young adults to thinking in international dimensions. Thereby I am thinking of the possibilities and opportunities that various Exchange Program Organizers have to achieve a multiplier effect on international awareness and progress. Specifically

I am suggesting the regular and structured use of current and former participants on either side of the Atlantic for engaging with people when abroad or -after the experience- with the community back home.

1. Example:
   During our time at Moraine Valley Community College my two CDS colleagues and myself put together a German Information Week for the 1st anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.
   For 5 days around November 9th we had "sessions" during which we covered German history, German reunification, German business, German culture … and, thanks to CDS colleague Amooz's Quantitive Food Production class, German food:
   Schweinebraten mit Klößen, and for a close - Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte !
   The event was quite a success for the College and organizing and presenting it was lots of fun, too.
   
2. Example:
   The years after my return to Germany in July 1991 I have repeatedly appeared in classes at former schools of mine (Realschule, Fachoberschule) and at the Fachhochschule Würzburg, where I enrolled after the CDS-year. Due to the request and arrangement by friends I even "had a gig" at their Gymnasium … At all these events I shared US-experiences, personal impressions, all enhanced by showing some of the many slides I've taken in Chicago and other places.
   To facilitate international thinking, and I would like to qualify that thinking with "balanced" and "objective", a sound foundation is ideally laid early on - High School, Senior and Junior level; latest during 1st-year College classes. Early contact with a "live" German or American (peer or otherwise) can have an eye-opening effect by breaking up TV-created stereotypes. Also it can awaken curiosity which transforms into motivation for further study (country, culture or language). The benefits of such a tangible experience cannot be overrated.

Other motivational tools for introducing young people to another culture -let's say German- are:

• Music (lyrics) (Nena, Falco, "Major Tom", Peter Maffay, Herbert Grönemeyer, BAP - Scorpions)

• Movies (Das Boot, Neverending Story, Men, The Tin Drum, Blue Angel, Faust)

• Reading (classics: Goethe, Schiller, Lessing, Nietsche; contemporary: Grass, Böll, Mann, Kafka, Brecht)

• Internet - German radio/TV

• Private German groups (German Stammtisch) - "Public" German culture/heritage clubs - US Oktoberfests

• Famous Immigrants:
  Baron von Steuben / Gustav Roebling / Levis Strauss / H. Steinway / Albert Einstein / Dwight Eisenhower Adm. Nimitz / Wernher von Braun / Oscar Hammerstein / Marlene Dietrich / Henry Kissinger / Arnold Schwarzenegger / Helmut Jahn

In closing I would again like to point out the great potential that exists in the experience and international knowledge of participants of any exchange program, study exchange, research stipend etc. By having participants share some of those experiences and some of that knowledge to a broader, and -more importantly- younger audience two main benefits are achieved:

• many more young people grow up and mature with a more balanced and open world-view

• Exchange Program Organizers don't have to invest as much time in breaking up participants' existing stereotypes. Rather, they can focus on expanding a balanced knowledge base.

Using my international experiences & knowledge in the ways described above (and so many small ways on an almost daily basis) was something I (in 1991 with Amooz & Werner) have done through my own initiative.

If participants' potentials across the board are used in a more organized and structured way, as a regular "2nd-tier benefits system" of exchange programs etc., the "bang for the buck" will be even greater than with the amazing benefits that the participant himself/herself derives.

Harald Dertinger
hkd@prodigy.net