Career Booster Germany

On November 5^th the GCCIR had the opportunity, together with numerous other organizations, to promote Germany and the German language to Junior High and High School students in Edmonton.

It was the second iteration of the Career Booster Germany event in Edmonton, organized by the Goethe-Institut Toronto and hosted by IISLE (Institute for Innovation in Second Language Education) and ZfA (Central Agency for Schools Abroad).

Special guests included the new Consul General of Germany for Western Canada, Dr. Klaus Otto Schmidt, and Honorary Consuls of Germany Mr. Harald Kuckertz for Edmonton and Mr. Hubertus Liebrecht for Calgary.

Working with companies in Alberta to foster innovative technological research and development collaboration projects with Germany, the GCCIR was invited to share with students how a working knowledge of German can be good for business and their future career paths. Katelyn Petersen, Executive Director of the GCCIR, also had the opportunity to share her experiences with the German language during a panel discussion on German/Multilingualism as Global Fluency, which discussed how  knowledge of German and international experience can also have professional benefits in a new global context.

GCCIR Project Coordinator, Stanley Walter, shared some of his experiences working internationally and interculturally and pointed out some of the advantages to learning German, as well as sharing some of the language’s more creative turns of phrase.

For the GCCIR, it was exciting to see how many students joined the event from Edmonton’s public schools and how many were either interested in learning German or already taking German classes at their schools.

We look forward to promoting Germany to students again at the next Career Booster Germany.