New RIAS summer exchange program for US college students up and running
Fifteen U.S. college students and recent graduates heading into broadcast journalism spent the first week of their three-week summer exchange program on a whirlwind tour of media, political and cultural stops this past week.
The program is designed to expand horizons and shed a light on the role that RIAS (Radio in American Sector) played during the Cold War as well as give the young American journalists a chance to meet German journalists and learn more about journalism in Germany.
The students from 14 different universities and 11 states from Florida to Washington state and from Texas and Oklahoma to Montana, North Carolina and Kentucky got a chance to talk to former Germany and USA soccer coach Jürgen Klinsmann, the German government’s transatlantic coordinator Peter Beyer, German-Iranian artist Kani Alavi, former West Berlin mayor Walter Momper, and former RIAS general director Helmut Drück among others during their first busy week in the German capital. They also got a chance to see a museum at Stasi headquarters, the Stasi prison, the Berlin Wall memorial on Bernauer Strasse, the Palace of Tears at Friedrichstrasse, the Deutschlandradio headquarters in Berlin and talk to DLR journalist Vladimir Balzer.
Klinsmann, who also helped West Germany win the World Cup in 1990 and scored 11 goals in his three tournaments in 1990, 1994 and 1998 to make him the sixth all-time leading World Cup scorer, talked openly and enthusiastically about the value of such exchange programs.
He pointed out that his first trip to the United States as a young soccer player at the age of 19 opened his eyes to the world outside his small hometown in southwest Germany and changed his life. He talked about his playing career that later took him to play for top European soccer clubs Italy, where he learned Italian, then Monaco, where he learned French, and to England, where he improved his English before he returned to Germany and played for Bayern Munich.
The American students also got the chance to visit Peter Beyer at the German Foreign Ministry, where he talked about the challenges facing U.S.-German relations.
Beyer is also a member of the RIAS Berlin Commission that oversees the RIAS Berlin Commission and spoke about his desire to learn more about the heartland in the United States, efforts that he hopes will be enhanced with the year-long program called “Deutschlandjahr in den USA” starting in October.
Taking part in the pioneering new program that aims to bring 15 American students to Germany each summer to learn more about the country and expanding their horizons, the students also got the chance to meet artist Kani Alavi — who was a driving force behind the creation of the East Side Gallery open-art art gallery painted on the east side of the Berlin Wall in the chaotic days right after the Berlin Wall fell on November 9, 1989.
He proudly told the students about his idea for his own painting on the East Side Gallery that depicts thousands of delighted East Germans streaming through the opening of the border on that unforgettable evening.
The students on the program read several books and watched many films about Berlin, Germany and the Cold War to get ready for the three-week program. Their extensive preparation helped them better understand stops to the Stasi museum, the Stasi prison, the RIAS building, the German Foreign Ministry, the journalism department at the Free University of Berlin where they met foreign journalists from across Europe under a program run by Dr. Alexander Görke, and the Springer Akademie, a finishing school for young journalists at one of the country’s leading publishing companies where they met young journalists under the tutelage of deputy director Rudolf Porsch.
Trips to the Glienicker Bridge where Cold War spy swaps took place, a new Berlin spy museum, Deutsche Welle TV headquarters, the English-language KCRW radio station in Berlin, and to the broadcast media capital of Germany in Cologne are planned for the second week.
The students also got a chance to visit the newly renovated Staatsoper unter den Linden and watch an opera. They also walked past the apartment building where Chancellor Angela Merkel lived before she took office in 2005, has lived during her 13 years leading Germany’s government and will most likely continue living long after she leaves office. They also got a chance to see a riveting multi-media documentary film on the history of the Reichstag building beamed across the River Spree behind the Reichstag on a building used as offices for members of parliament.
Here is a list of the U.S. students participating in the pioneering program:
Nicole Browning, Northern Kentucky University
Gabrielle Calise, University of Florida
Rose Carr, Western Washington University
Emily Damm, Texas A&M
Nick Derberbian, State University of New York at Oswego
Leighty Hanrahan, University of Wisconsin
Samarie Hill, Hillsborough Community College
Dolores Hinckley, University of Florida
Hannah Lee, University of Florida
Mollie Lemm, University of Montana
Sam Lichtenstein, Elon University, Elon, North Carolina
Adrian Molinar, New Mexico State University
Pamela Ortega, University of Oklahoma
Sophia Saliby, Indiana University
Dylan Srocki, Miami University
