A message to all Alumni/Alumnae:

We would like to hear from our alums, wherever you may be! Keep us informed about what you are doing, and about developments in your lives and careers. Please note that the information you send us will be printed in an upcoming departmental newsletter and might be edited. Please e-mail your updates/photos to gsll@colorado.edu or mail to Germanic and Slavic Languages and Literatures, Attn: Newsletter, 129 McKenna, 276 UCB, Boulder, CO 80309-0276. Here are alum updates since our last newsletter in Fall 2007:

Heather Dittmore (German M.A. 2002)

I've been teaching first year German at Portland Community College (PCC) since 2003 and at Portland State University (PSU) since 2007. I'm working on my M.A. in TESOL at PSU and hope to finish in June 2009. I'm a German teacher learning how to be an ESL teacher!

Chris Hoelzl (German, History, Politicial Science B.A. 1984)

Greetings from the suburbs of Washington, DC where I've lived since 1991.

As I write this I'm about to drop a DVD into the computer from a German production company based in Berlin. The plan is to take this series and Americanize it. This will mean new casting and new shooting with American talent. But first I've got to wrap my head around the original show. I'm hoping my German is up to the task. An improbable path has led me to this point, and the breadcrumb trail of a liberal arts education can be traced directly to the German, History and Political Science departments in Boulder. In my current role at the Smithsonian Channel I'm in charge of creating and developing non-fiction television programs. We are a start up enterprise having just launched this past September. Our programming is inspired by the museums whose name we bear and their mission to inform and diffuse knowledge. It's a broad slate, everything from art, natural history, music and of course American history. Much of what I do involves working with other broadcasters around the world developing co-productions. Occasionally my German comes in useful in conversations with ZDF, ORF, Spiegel, Pro-Sieben, etc.

I'm very pleased to see Horst Mewes and David Gross in the expanded faculty. They were seminal influences in my studies as an undergrad. I certainly could use a German refresher course from Thomas Hollweck; this DVD is proving harder than I expected. Check out our programs on Direct TV channel 267 or ask your cable company for us.

Best wishes,
Chris Hoelzl
VP Program Development
Smithsonian Channel

Erin Jurich Finney (German B.A. 2002, German M.A. 2005)

I moved to Alamosa, CO with my husband who teaches at Adams State College now. I'm still working on my PsyD (doctorate in Psychology), but all my classes are finished so it's just the dissertation and doctoral internship that are left. I'm working at the mental health center down here until internship, which may happen in a year or two. We just welcomed our first baby into the world on Sept. 13. Her name is Annabelle and we are madly in love with her. Things are going really well for us, we couldn't be happier!

Ingrid Stahlbrand Kassler (German M.A. 1965)

Now that I am ready to retire from teaching at Western Washington University in Bellingham, WA, after nearly 30 years as a lecturer at this institution, I realize how unique our B.A. and M.A. programs in Boulder were those many years ago. I often talk with Rudi Weiss, who was at CU about the same time as I. The Boulder / Bellingham connection is still alive, as Kurt Moerschner is also here in Bellingham. He retired from our department many years ago, but comes by now and again. Rudi and I remember the huge groups of T.A.'s and the vibrant summer school sessions that made the German Department dynamic. I am in touch with Ann Henderson Hogue; in fact, we traveled to South America together a few years ago. I wonder how many graduates remember our department parties and the demanding classes taught by our fine professors!

Glenn Maxey (German B.A. 1986, EE/CS B.S. 1986, Telecommunications M.S. 1992)

Hoi deutsche Abteilung!

I started German in Junior High and kept it up at CU while studying engineering. When engineering stressed me out, I applied for one of two exchange slots for Stuttgart; I was number three, but better qualified in German than many going to Regensburg. Alas by then, it was full. So the Office of International Education made a deal with the University of Kansas and got me into Erlangen (1983-84).

Learned two things very quickly while drinking Erdinger Weizen with German engineering students: I would complete my engineering studies; I would return to Boulder to do it. I originally had a one-way plane ticket to keep my options open.

Upon my return to CU, I found myself closer to a German degree than an engineering degree. The engineering degree required literature and history, but didn't specify what language it was taught in. Made it easy to get both degrees.

Several years later while finishing up CU graduate school in Telecommunications, I took advantage of another opportunity to go back to Erlangen on scholarship (1991-92). I used that year to find a job. I wanted to change careers from engineering to technical writing and knew that leveraging my native English skills and technical background would be key to my success. Studying a foreign language improves your abilities in your native language. I got a job at Genius CAD-Software GmbH in Amberg, just east of Nürnberg. They developed mechanical engineering software for AutoCAD. I was able to interview German engineers in their native languages, understand and appreciate the technical details of their efforts, and write appropriate technical manuals and online help in English that made their products acceptable and competitive in the USA.

Unfortunately, this was just after the wall came down, and German laws were tightened. They didn't look fondly on me changing my residency from "student" to "employee" without leaving the country for a year and re-applying. Das Ausländeramt in Amberg gave me big trouble every year for 2-1/2 years, despite and because of one of my boss's connections with the Bürgermeister. Beampter have long memories and are very patient. They have the power of "yes" and "no," but more importantly of "no decision yet, Herr Maxey; come back in two weeks."

In the final months at permit renewal time they threatened deportation, which my lawyer and I could have won. Alas, the battle for permits weakened my salary negotiations and completely eliminated any possibility of changing German employers to boost my earnings. I faxed my resume to a Boulder software company and had my first telephone interview around midnight on a Friday after a few beers from my usual bar tour. The job offer had a bonus to pay my way back to Boulder.

In 1999 I was at a conference in Seattle for technical writers and noticed a job poster from an Austrian company that practically had my resume listed: a technical writer with knowledge of electrical engineering and software, native English speaker, German proficiency. They paid my way to Dornbirn, Austria, which is on the German-Swiss-Austrian border close to Lake Konstanz. No problems or restrictions whatsoever with their Ausländeramt! I worked for OMICRON electronics GmbH, a growing hardware/software manufacturer of test equipment for components used in power generation. (They're hiring.)

Personal reasons brought me back to Colorado after a beautiful year in Austria. I now live in Fort Collins and am working for a large semiconductor manufacturer out of Boston, MA and San Jose, CA. I'm not using much German except to communicate with former co-workers and dorm friends, but I am reaching back to electrical engineering while extending my technical writing and computer skills into web development and software tools. My wife is from Argentina, so my Spanish studies taken on the side while in graduate school come back into play.

The moral of this zigzag story is that we never know where we'll end up and what aspects of our education will come back to serve us later in life. If done right, your education and skills can be leveraged to write your own ticket anywhere you want to go.

Henry Meier (German M.A. 1966)

Taught German in Illinois for 33 years. First at Lincoln-Way High School in New Lenox and then was a founding faculty member at William Rainey Harper College in Palatine, Illinois, where he was also chair of the foreign language department. He retired and has lived in Centennial, Colorado, since 1996.

Vicky Nann (German M.A. 2000)

I graduated from CU with an MA in Germanic Studies in 2000. In August 2006, I moved from Evergreen, Colorado to a suburb of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Yes, it's cold here in the winter, but it's beautifully green in the spring and summer, and I can breathe a lot easier than I could at nearly 8,000 feet! I continue to practice speaking German with my husband's family - all of whom live in Germany - and do occasional translations. I recently became a Realtor, and am proud to offer my services in German. Check out my German page on www.vickynann.com! If you know people - German-speaking or not – who are thinking of moving to the Twin Cities, let them know that there's a real estate professional who speaks their language. I would love to help them find just the right home. Write to me at vicky@vickynann.com.

Sara Platzer Oser (German, M.A., 1976)

My name is Sara Platzer Oser, and I graduated with an M.A. in German in 1976, Centennial Year Commencement. During the time I was a student at Boulder, we spent weekends hiking and getting together with students in the then Germanic Languages and Literature Dept. I studied in Göttingen as a graduate exchange student from 1974 to 1975, coincidentally Das Jahr der Frau in Germany. Part of my degree work was in the Linguistics department with the courses now known as TESOL. Since 1999 I have been working at our local community college. I coordinate and teach in the Intensive English Program at the College of Marin in Novato, California. We are a fee-based program that teaches academic English to students on F-1 visas, au pairs, and others residing in the community. Our website is www.marincommunityed.org. I'm married and have a son in college and a daughter in high school. This year we have a German exchange student living with us and attending school with my daughter. It would be nice to hear from some alums from back then.

Jocelyn Renner (Russian B.A., Applied Math B.S. 2003)

This year, I graduated from Northwestern with my PhD in Mechanical Engineering. After moving to Cincinnati, OH, I started work at General Electric where I work as a combustion engineer in the GE Aircraft. On November 1, I will marry Ben Passty.