Berlin is always good for a surprise. Kylie Kost and Bruce Clark, students from the United States, have noticed this time and again. They are both doing a three-month internship in the German capital during their summer vacation. They enjoy their walks through downtown Berlin. And who do they bump into? Matthew Wygal who, like them, is taking part in the Transatlantic Program (TAP), which the Chicago-based German-American Chamber of Commerce of the Midwest (GACCoM) has been offering students since 2005. Matthew's internship is near Munich, but he has just taken his parents to the airport in Berlin after their visit to Germany. The three young academics would be unlikely to meet like this in the USA: Kylie, Bruce and Matthew are studying in Minnesota, Illinois and California respectively – i.e. thousands of miles apart. A smaller country sometimes makes unexpected surprises possible – another lesson from their stay in Germany.
The three are full of praise for their host country. They like the historically evolved towns and cities, the fact that residential and commercial streets are so close together, the well-developed public transport systems. Bruce is enthusiastic about Berlin's cycleway network and travels everywhere by bike. “You can live without a car in German cities,” Kylie confirms: “Germany is a role model because it combines a strong economy with high environmental standards.” This is a conclusion TAP manager Sabine Klensch likes to hear. The Chamber of Commerce, she says, wants to show the 20 students taking part in the exchange “today's Federal Republic, because the image of Germany they get at American colleges is often rather outdated.” The central themes of the ten-day Immersion Seminar attended by the participants at the beginning of their stay in Germany in late May were therefore sustainability and renewable energy. After hearing lectures introducing German politics and the German economy, they went of on day trips to the Airbus plant in Hamburg and Volkswagen's “Transparent Factory” in Dresden. The American students subsequently had a discussion with Claudia Kemfert, energy expert of the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW), about ways of protecting resources. This was the highlight of the seminar for Global Studies student Kylie. After all, this is also a key issue on her traineeship in the environmental department of a party-linked foundation, she says. Climate protection is a relevant issue for architecture student Bruce, too, who is gaining work experience in an architectural office: “German buildings with their double façades and heat insulation save a lot more energy than buildings in America.” Only in Matthew's placement – he is studying music management – is climate change not directly relevant. He is currently finding out how pop artists are marketed; his internship is at a company that designs and issues music-related investment funds.
Like the subjects they are studying, the three's motivations for learning German and travelling to the Federal Republic differ considerably. Kylie comes from a Germanophile family and reads a lot of German literature. Bruce was attracted by sophisticated construction techniques developed by contemporary German architectures. Matthew, finally, chose German courses at college and raves about the creative atmosphere in Berlin. The young Americans say the different study disciplines and interests of all the exchange students are as stimulating as their customized internship places.
This is because of the sophisticated selection process, Sabine Klensch explains. Well over a hundred candidates a year apply for the TAP on the recommendation of their lecturers; the Chamber of Commerce then conducts a detailed telephone interview with about 50 of them. “In this way we make sure we choose 20 candidates who are really interested in Germany and take this know-how back to the USA,” the program director explains. The German cooperation partner Capacity Building International (InWEnt) then looks for suitable internship places for the participants nationwide. The organization continues intensively looking after the participants after their arrival. During the Immersion Seminar, for example, language coaches explain to them when to use the formal “Sie” and when the more familiar “Du” form for “you”. After their return to the United States they become TAP alumni and keep in contact with each other via newsletters and at regional and national meetings. The network has 118 alumni in the meantime.
All this effort has its price, of course. The participants themselves pay about 40 percent of the program costs (which total $7,000 per person), although most receive a salary from their German employers during their two- to six-month internship. Most of the remaining costs are covered by the Federal Ministry of Economics. The Chamber of Commerce also contributes funds of its own. The German ambassador in Washington and patron of the program, Klaus Scharioth, praises the fact that the TAP is primarily open to undergraduates, because university students in the USA otherwise have little chance of doing an internship abroad before graduating. Scharioth says he hopes the TAP participants bring new ideas to Germany, so that the internship becomes a valuable experience for both sides.
Six TAP alumni have returned to Germany after graduating to continue their academic careers or enter a profession. The number of young Americans coming to Germany to study or start a career is likely to grow over the coming years. For not only TAP participants find Germany an attractive place for an internship. According to the Federal Agency for Employment, a total of 916 young US citizens completed an internship in the Federal Republic in 2008 – an increase of 50 percent over the previous year.
