The graduating senior will be one of 75 Americans on a full-year work-study experience in Germany.
Silas Altheimer '12 has been accepted into the Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange (CBYX) for Young Professionals, a program that will send him for a full-year work-study fellowship in Germany. Started in 1983 to celebrate the 300th anniversary of the first German immigrant to the United States, the program consists of a two-month intensive German course, followed by a four-month period of study at a German university and ending with a five-month internship with a German company. As part of his acceptance, Altheimer has been given a full, federally funded scholarship for the entire year.
“Seventy-five total participants were chosen among a pool of over five hundred applicants,” says Bill Meier, the program's manager.“And it is a great accomplishment that Mr. Altheimer was awarded this unique study- and work-abroad fellowship.”
Though the CBYX program does not require its participants to be fluent in German, Altheimer has been familiarizing himself with the language by taking Haverford's two-semester introductory course. Long intrigued with his German roots, he is excited to finally spend some time in the country learning about the everyday life and professional training of German citizens.
“In 1880, my great-great-grandfather emigrated from Germany to Arkansas,” he says.“Discovering this at age 10 made me curious about my cultural background. I also became interested in Germany through watching my favorite [soccer] club, SV Werder Bremen, Saturday mornings in high school and college… and reading Buddenbrooks and The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann.”
Altheimer does not yet know in which city he will be living or at which university he will matriculate. (He will find out his placement from CBYX in September.) And he will be required to find his own internship to fill the second half of his time with the program. But he already has some plans to explore his interests once he gets to Europe.
“I am especially excited,” he says,“to study international law in Germany.”
