Every year it is bittersweet for me to say goodbye to the language interns. I am always pleased to see how they have grown and matured, yet I am happy for them to return to family and friends; however, after spending the school year getting to know one other and learning so much about each other’s cultures, it becomes difficult to say “goodbye” each year. My life has been greatly enriched thanks to Natashia, Helene, Maria, and Barbara, and it has been especially difficult to see them leave.

However, the years must turn as they always do, and this August a new group of interns will occupy Detchon Room 222.  This group, like last year, will consist of all women. Listed below are their names with a brief summary of their interests. It is my hope that you will welcome them to Wabash just as you have the others in the past.

Cathy Saksik will serve as the French intern. She is completing her Master’s degree, where her concentrations are American History, American Political Philosophy, and psychoanalysis. She anticipates that the cultural exchange while here at Wabash will help her and her students understand their respective cultures in a “different and deeper way.”

Cynthia Francica is a Fulbright who has taught English and Spanish as a second language to students of various ages and language levels for the past ten years. Like Maria, Cynthia comes to us from Argentina. Being close to each other, Cynthia actually had the opportunity to spend several hours with Maria at an Argentine café discussing the wonderful qualities of life at Wabash and no don’t Argentina’s success in the World Cup. I am sure that she will be fully prepared to jump right in with tutorials, classes, and college life when she arrives on campus in August.

Susanne Ulzhoefer will have the task of filling past interns Barbara, Andreas, Bernd, and Ben’s shoes as the German intern. She comes to us, from Germany, having had some previous contact with American life when her family hosted an American exchange student in their home for a year. She is a member of a show dance group and loves to ride horses. She says she is looking forward to broadening her horizons as well as the opportunity to arouse her students’ interest in Germany.

Veronika Borshcheva is from Russia and is also a Fulbright.  She, too, has experience teaching English but has only had the opportunity to lean about America through books. Therefore, she is interested in “observing the culture so as to fill the gap in [her] professional skills.”  She received a degree in pedagogy for research about linguistic culture and would like to continue on to her doctorate degree. Though her mother tongue is Russian, she also speaks English, French, and Ukrainian. 

While here, the language interns are given the opportunity to participate in classes, learn about America, our educational system (especially fraternities), as well as our customs and ways of life. They provide a valuable resource to the Department in that they provide assistance in the language and literature classes, conduct tutorials, and present a first hand experience of their native country to the student body.

 “…my experience as a language learner and a language teacher has led me to the conclusion that learning a foreign language is much more than just exploring its linguistic structures and patterns of use: it opens up doors to the world, and in doing so, it broadens our horizons...” – Cynthia Francica