Greetings from Philly

Hallo, Freunde!

Hello, friends!

My name is Julianne and I will be returning this year as a Program Leader for the Berlin Language and Culture program, Session 1. I was a program leader for HSSA 2018 and it was an amazing experience, so I am thrilled to be returning to Berlin again this summer for another four weeks with great students! I worked on the blog last summer and it was a fun opportunity to log some of our group activities and excursions and was a great outlet for some of our students to share what they were seeing, learning, and doing. I hope to use this space to feature our students, their photos and their voices throughout the next few weeks.

A little about me: I am a graduate student at the University of Georgia studying Higher Education Administration and Policy. I studied abroad in Germany for a year with the CBYX program and since then I have been in love with figuring out the boundaries of my comfort zone. In the past ten years, I have lived and worked in Germany, Austria, and Indonesia as an English teacher and have traveled whenever time (and finances) have allowed.

I am writing now on behalf of the group flying out of PHL. We have seven students and me, safely at the gate, all ready to go with passports in hand and wanderlust in our hearts. I know that Rorey, Marvin and Erin (my fellow PLs) are doing a great job getting some other participants though JFK and I look forward to meeting them in Berlin at Tegal airport...just a few more hours until our adventure begins.

Until then here's to wishing ALL the Session 1 HSSA programs a safe flight and a wonderful journey. I hope that every participant on every trip is able to experience the life-changing power of travel and cultural immersion and I am excited to follow along on their journies.

Tschau for now!

Julianne