Newsroom/Programs & exchange·April 3, 2023·5 min read

German students discover American Midwest, Southwest on RIAS ERP student program

Fifteen German journalism students have been spending two weeks in the Midwest, Southwest and Mountain states to learn more about how American students learn the journalism trade at universities, college campus radio and tv stations across the heartland states: Montana, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, and Arizona.

University of Arizona journalism students with Germany’s Malkam Goytom and Abel Fekade (backroom center). UA professor Liliana Soto is third from left in the back row.

The 15 German students, including 10 who were on their first visit to the United States, spent the first week of their three-week ERP Transatlantic Fellowship program in New York together as a group, where they also met senior UN officials and New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy as well as German Consul General David Gill. The following two weeks have been spent in smaller groups of one to three at the seven universities in the Midwest, Southwest and Montana stations.

Wiebke Bolle from Welt is visiting Southern Illinois University. She also stopped by at KFVS TV in nearby Cape Girardeau.

Simon Wörz visiting the University of Montana reported that the “contrast between the week in New York and the two weeks in Montana couldn’t be bigger.” He is attending some journalism classes in Missoula as well as a class called “Native News” where the students learn and report about the indigenous tribes while striving to avoid reproducing stereotypes and racism. “It’s really interesting,” he said. Another interesting lecture he attended was about audio journalism from a guest professor who had actually heard about Wörz’s own podcast in Germany. Wörz also shadowed one student who is working for the local tv station and learned how the news show gets produced every day. “It seems like everyone knows everyone in Missoula and I kinda like that vibe,” he said. He also visited the staff meeting of the student newspaper and the radio station on campus.

At Southern Illinois University, Wiebke Bolle has visited a local TV and radio station as well as the local newspaper. She also met high school students and answered their questions about Germany and journalism in Germany. Bolle also wrote an article for the student newspaper about gun control in Germany.

At the University of Indiana, Miriam Wüst reported that she, Anna Seikel and Jackie Albrecht visiting from Germany went to a TV shoot for the local TV station to a middle school about the FinalFour in Basketball, attended some journalism classes and went to a college baseball game. They also went to the state capitol building for a TV shoot and watched a debate about whether to change laws on alcohol. They also met a German professor that teaches at IU and talked to him about the university system in the US. They also visited the campus newspaper, a local farm and Miriam did an interview for the local TV station on the strict gun control laws in Germany. They also traveled to a local town in Indiana that was hit hard by a tornado last week.

Abel Fekade from the University of Leipzig meets Angelika in Sierra Vista Arizona, who is running “Angelika’s German Imports”.

At the University of Arizona in Tucson, Abel Fekade and Malkam Goytom have been attending U of A broadcasting classes held by Liliana Sotos, who will be taking part in a RIAS program to Germany in June. They also attended communications and photojournalism classes and met with local students.

In Wisconsin, Linda Bachmann and Kim Kristin Loschen have been attended UW-Oshkosh classes and had a meeting with Oshkosh mayor Lori Palmer. The talked about her political career, racism in the United States, the next presidential election as well as housing issues in the United States and Germany. In Madison, they also visited WSUM-FM, the UW-Madison student radio station, and WISC-TV, the CBS affiliate in Madison.

Kim Kristin Loschen and Linda Bachmann from Germany at WSUM FM radio station in Madison, Wisconsin

In Oklahoma, Til Schäbitz, Jakob Gierth and Szuli Went visited a local school called Santa Fe South High school, which is located in an abandoned shopping mall and where 96% of the students are Hispanic. “I’ve never felt a such a strong sense of community in any school I’ve ever been to,” said Schäbitz, noting that some of the teaching staff was recruited out of necessity to work at the school even though some did not have a teaching credential. “All the students support each other, the relationship to the teachers is great.”

Schäbitz added that the Oklahoma students asked the German visitors about Germany, the Berlin

Szuli Wendt, Jakob Gierth and Til Schäbitz visit University of Oklahoma Nightly News station studio

Wall, the Holocaust and sights to visit in Europe. “It was truly an amazing experience.”

In Nebraska, Jana Sievers said that she joined a student named Jackson Atwell and a friend of his to attend his church for a bible studies and ministry, where she learned more about the powerful influence of religion in the United States. She visited the local Lincoln Journal Star newspaper and the Broadcasting station 10/11. She attended a journalism conference in Minneapolis, where she interviewed Dan Shelley, President and CEO of RTDNA, as well as RIAS alumni Kevin King of the Dakota News Network in Sioux Falls, about free speech in the United States.

The goal of the ERP program, which was created with support from a grant from the Economy Ministry, is to expand horizons, help connect young German journalism students with their peers in the United States and help aspiring journalists in both countries learn more about journalism training in each others’ countries. The ERP program is supported by the Transatlantic Program of the Federal Republic of Germany. It is funded by the European Recovery Program (ERP) of the Federal Economy and Energy (BMWi) Ministry.

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