Central grad hopes to gain experience in conservation while in Germany. Here's her story.
An Aberdeen native is going to learn more about her German heritage, and hopefully her profession, as part of a congressional exchange program.
Sophie Wieland, 22, graduated from Central High School in 2018 and the University of Minnesota-Morris in May. She double-majored in environmental studies and biology and minored in German studies.
Wieland’s interest in Germany was piqued by her German ancestry. Her grandfather spoke German, but never taught the language to his own children. Wieland’s dad took it upon himself to learn German in college. He tried speaking it to his children, but it wasn’t enough to overwhelm the amount of English they were surrounded by growing up, she said.
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Wieland family still in contact with German relatives
Wieland said her family is still in contact with distant relatives in Germany and has spent time around Lake Constance in the southern part of the country. She wasn’t able to study abroad in college due to travel restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic and decided to postpone traveling until she graduated.
That’s when she found the Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange, a program that allows American students to spend a year in Germany, while German students spend a year in the U.S. It is sponsored by the U.S. Congress and German Bundestag, which is the German federal parliament.
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While the program largely focuses on high school students, there is a smaller program for young professionals. Wieland is one of 75 Americans to be accepted into the program and will leave for Germany on July 30.
After two months, Wieland will have job or internship
She still doesn’t know exactly where she’ll be spending the majority of her time in Germany. She’ll first spend two months in Radolfzell am Bodensee, a small town near Lake Constance. There, Wieland will be with other students in the program while they learn more about the German language. After that, the students will be scattered throughout the country for the remaining 10 months and will work at a job or internship.
Wieland still hasn’t received her placement for her job or internship, she said. While she had the option to look ahead to try to increase her chances of being placed in a specific city, she said she doesn’t have a preference. Because Germany isn’t a huge country geographically, she can always take weekend trips to different areas.
She hopes to have a career in conservation. A lot of research is currently being done in Germany, she said, with the country having many naturschutzgebiet, or nature conservation areas.
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The goal of conservation work is to preserve biodiversity, said Wieland. And because there is so much biodiversity in the world, most researchers will focus on something specific, such as endangered plants, animals or fungi. Wieland said she hasn’t narrowed her focus just yet. But she hopes to learn about what she likes or dislikes by the end of her year in Germany.
Wieland will return to the U.S. in June 2023. She hopes to attend graduate school as the next step toward her career.
This article originally appeared on Aberdeen News: Aberdeen woman to visit Germany as part of congressional exchange
