MAJORS
LEARN BY DOING
- Study Abroad
EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES
- German Club
- Captain of Varsity Soccer
DONOR SUPPORT
Learning the Language
Elizabeth Cassibry
Class of 2020 鈥 Fort Benning, GeorgiaMAJORS
LEARN BY DOING
- Study Abroad
EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES
- German Club
- Captain of Varsity Soccer
DONOR SUPPORT
As part of an itinerant military family, Elizabeth doesn鈥檛 really have a hometown, but she does have an affinity for Germany.
鈥淚 think it鈥檚 because I was there when I was so young,鈥 she says. 鈥淢y parents would show me pictures and tell me about all these amazing things we did. I really wanted to go back there.鈥
In the summer after her junior year, she did just that, spending ten weeks at the Humboldt University in Berlin. Taking a single course, 鈥淛ewish Narratives,鈥 Elizabeth began to build the framework for her Senior Capstone Experience (SCE) in German Studies, which examines the differences between Jewish community and non-Jewish community spaces. (Her SCE in history examines the Baltimore Riot of 1812, an event considered pivotal to American democracy and Republicanism.)
While she was studying in Berlin, Elizabeth鈥檚 German professor at WC, Nicole Grewling, stopped by to see her, bringing tickets for a book reading by an author Elizabeth admired.
鈥淎t Humboldt I made a lot of friends who went to school at big universities, and this gesture seemed so strange to them; they thought that my professor and I were 鈥榓wkwardly close.鈥 To them, it was odd, but also enviable. They were like, 鈥業 don鈥檛 have that kind of relationship with my German professor.鈥