Bridges Report - Spring 2022

The Fruman and Marian Jacobson
“Bridges” Fund For

Students in Germanic Studies

Spring 2021

https://german.uic.edu/awards-and-grants/bridges-fund/

Included Recipients

Undergraduate

Noemi Andras

Award Amount: $5,000

Noemi Andras is an undergraduate student at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) in the College of
Engineering. She is a junior majoring in Computer Science and minoring in Germanic Studies. After graduating,
she hopes to pursue a career in software engineering.

Academically, Noemi has successfully completed a year of undergraduate computer science research through
the UIC Early Research Scholars Program (ERSP) in her sophomore year. In the 2020-2021 year, she joined
ERSP as a peer mentor to share her gained experience with current undergraduate student teams pursuing
research and to guide them along the way.

Noemi has also been involved in the UIC community by becoming an official member of the Society of Women
Engineers (SWE) at UIC in her freshman year and volunteering at past outreach events, such as ‘Mom, Me
and SWE’ and ‘Introduce a Girl to Engineering day’. Currently, she is the Outreach Co-Chair of SWE for the
academic year 2020-2021, where she successfully co-organized two virtual ‘Mom, Me and SWE’ engineering
outreach events for 40+ middle school students featuring Bioengineering and Electrical Engineering. She
hopes that she was able to inspire students interested in pursuing STEM.

Noemi’s academic goals include studying abroad in her senior year. Through the Fruman and Marian Jacobson
“Bridges” Fund, she will be able to study in Austria if it is safe to travel abroad considering the current health
conditions. During her study abroad experience, she hopes to solidify her German language skills and to
immerse herself in the local culture. She hopes to gain unique perspectives on the world that she can bring
back to her professional life once she graduates.

Kat Mamulashvili

Award Amount: $599

My name is Kat Mamulashvili, and I am a rising senior at UIC. I am pursuing my BA in Communication with a double
minor in German and Spanish. My educational goal entails graduating by Fall 2021. My career goals are slightly
undefined at the moment, as I continue to reflect on myself and learn more about available opportunities. However,
I can speak to my interest in international business and affairs. Should I pursue this field, I would hope to represent
the United States in a positive light. Specifically, given my endeavours in Germanic studies, I would hope to work in
German-American relations.

Part of what attracts me to the international community is that I would be interacting with a variety of cultures--
but my interest in this field goes beyond learning about different countries and their fascinating customs. There are
many negative stereotypes about Americans. Thus, regardless of which exact position or sector I settle in, I hope to
favorably redefine the image and perception of Americans abroad. It is my belief that every one of us is in some way
a diplomat--when we interact with people of different cultures and backgrounds, we represent our own cultures and
backgrounds.

I have often been told by people of different cultures that, before meeting me, they held negative views about
Americans. Getting to know me and how I represented the United States, however, was what favorably changed their
minds. I include this not to boast; rather, I want to shed light on the influence of the “everyday diplomacy” we often
deal with and how defining it can be. Thus, given my international interests, I’d like to put a dignified and impressive
foot forward with every cross-cultural interaction I have.

Alex Rank

Award Amount: $5,000

Hello, my name is Alex Rank. I am a sophomore pursuing a double degree in Germanic Studies and Public
Policy with a minor in Criminology, Law, and Justice. I plan on spending my spring 2022 semester abroad in
Berlin studying at Humboldt University. Studying at Humboldt would provide me language skills that would
allow me to get a job in Germany once I graduate. I do not know exactly what I want to do with my life;
however, I would love for some part of it to be spent in Germany. I chose to study in Germany because my
father is from there, and I have attended extra-curricular German schools for as long as I remember. I am a
German peer tutor for the UIC Language and Cultural Learning Center. I enjoy helping people in a language
that I love. I am currently living at home in Columbus, Ohio due to the pandemic. In my free time, I volunteer
at the New Albany Food Pantry sorting and stocking food. I enjoy volunteering because it makes me feel like a
part of the community.

Alumni

Gabriela Chacon

Award Amount: $2,386

In 2012, at the age of fourteen, Gabriela moved to Chicago, Illinois, from Tachira, Venezuela. She attended
Neuqua Valley High School and soon became interested and involved in foreign language programs. Upon
graduating, Gabriela applied and qualified for an exchange student program that brought her to spending a
year in Germany. In 2016, she enrolled in community college, then, in 2017, she transferred to UIC pursuing
a Bachelor of Science in Biology with a minor in German Studies. Throughout her time at UIC, Gabriela was
avidly involved with the German Department. Her involvement included various club meetings and activities
including Sprach Cafe, a time when German students meet to talk about culture, watch films and practice
speaking skills outside of the classroom. Fueled with passion and genuine interest in the language, Gabriela
served as a Student Tutor willing to assist her peers with questions about German. She worked in this position
for three semesters at UIC and was elected to speak at German High School Day about her experience in the
program. After her graduation in the summer of 2020, she has been working at a dental office and plans to
return to school next year for a post-graduate degree. After post-graduate school, Gabriela will further strive for
a career in medicine or public health. She has a heart for helping as many people as possible and contributing
her skills and talents to her community wherever she may live.

Evan Lange

Award Amount: $2,400

My name is Evan Lange, and I recently completed my undergraduate degree in Sociology here at UIC. I am
beginning my graduate studies in German this coming fall. As a Sociology student, I had the opportunity to
study some of the great German sociologists and philosophers including but not limited to Marx, Weber, Jung,
and Nietzsche which greatly contributed to my interest in Germanic Studies. However, my interest in German
first began when I was a child. As a descendant of German immigrants, I was often surrounded by German-
speaking relatives and people who embodied and celebrated the vibrancy of the nation. I have been captivated
with the language, culture, and history ever since. I first started taking German courses about six years ago
when I enrolled at College of DuPage. Since then, I have continued to study informally and formally. My
interest led me to completing an internship at DANK Haus German American Cultural Center in Lincoln Square
during the summer of 2019. It was then that I finally decided I wanted to pursue studies in German post-
undergrad. During my time at UIC, I had the opportunity to work as peer tutor where I found a love for teaching.
I greatly enjoy being able to share my passion for the language and facilitate learning for others. Pursuing an
MA in Germanic Studies is a great step in the direction of one day teaching the German language. Additionally,
I would like to undertake doctoral studies in Sociocultural Anthropology in the future. I have a broader interest,
but also specifically pertaining to Germany, in the areas of national identity and public/collective memory. I
look forward to continuing to develop these academic interests and language skills and broadening my cultural
perspectives of Germany.

Alex Przybycin

Award Amount: $1,500

I am a Master of Computational Social Science student at the University of Chicago, where I research the
cognitive mechanisms of language learning in the Attention, Perception, & Experience (APEX) lab. This is a
topic I have been interested in my whole life as being a child of Polish and German immigrants gifted me the
opportunity to grow up in a multilingual community. Having taken four years of German classes at Lane Tech
College Prep, including AP German, along with my insatiable interest in brains led me to my bachelor’s degree
in Germanic Studies and Psychology at the University of Illinois at Chicago. My undergraduate research on
the struggles faced by immigrants in Germany, such as during the Syrian Refugee crisis, took me on several
journeys to Germany that gave me firsthand exposure to those issues. Some of the greatest difficulties I
observed were not only language barriers but the ability for individuals to learn a second language. This issue
though is not limited to immigrants, as I had also observed American students struggling with learning a second
language in Chicago, leading me to research psycholinguistics such as individual differences in language
aptitude. These experiences along with brain research showing potential to enhance humans’ lives across
the world solidified my career choice to become a cognitive scientist. As the future of brain science is driven
by data and quantum computing, I came to the University of Chicago to acquire cutting-edge research tools.
Asa graduate student I am also helping diversify the field of cognitive science by recruiting underrepresented
minorities to conduct research for open-source citizen-science projects to create language learning tools, such
as mobile games. Human Computer Interaction being an important pillar for cognitive research, I will continue
on to a position in the tech industry to gain relevant experience before pursuing a PhD. I have truly found my
calling in a research career as a cognitive scientist and look forward to discoveries which will enhance the
future of all humans!

Tavia Sons

My name is Tavia Sons. I am a 2020 UIC alumna in the first year of my master’s degree program in Düsseldorf,
Germany. I am studying Comparative English Literature and German language at Heinrich-Heine Universität
for two years and will pursue law school immediately following. I have a particular interest in studying
International Law and my dream job is in diplomacy, combining my love for travel, language, and international
politics. At UIC, I studied English and German with an educational goal of Pre-Law. Throughout my time at
UIC, I worked several jobs in order to support myself financially, including a year-long clerkship at a law firm in
the Loop. On campus, I was involved in Phi Alpha Delta, an international Pre-Law co-ed fraternity focused on
fraternalism and community service in the Chicagoland area. I was inducted into Delta Phi Alpha, a German
Honor Society, and was involved in Study Abroad Student Ambassadors upon my return from study abroad.
Off campus, I participated in Reading Buddies, a literacy program for elementary school students in Chicago.
While pursuing my master’s abroad, I hope to become fluent enough in German (and to start working on
another language) to comfortably work in a bilingual environment. I chose to study for my master’s in literature
prior to law school in order to write an extensive dissertation, honing my research and writing skills (in both
English and in German) in preparation for similar tasks in law school. I would also like to take this opportunity
to pursue internship opportunities in international law firms and consulates. During longer breaks from my
studies, I would like to be a Workaway volunteer on farms throughout Germany both to work on my German
skills and to meet people from the different regions and demographics of the country. Apart from my own
personal goals here in Germany, I am tutoring two local high schoolers in preparation for their Abitur in English.

Graduate

Wiktoria Adamczyk

Award Amount: $4,000

My name is Wiktoria Adamczyk. Currently I am a second-year PhD student at the University of Illinois at
Chicago in Germanic Studies. In 2015, I received my BA in Jewish Studies from the Jagiellonian University
in Kraków. Jewish life in Poland, Hebrew, and Yiddish were my major fields of research at that time. I have
always been interested in language, culture, history, philosophy, art, and political science, as well as German

literature and culture. I am also interested in linguistics, translation studies, Polish-German translations, the
role of translator, the function of language in our society, linguistic violence, comparative literature, philosophy,
WWII, and the Holocaust. In Fall 2019, I earned my MA in Holocaust Studies at Haifa University in Israel, and
this experience afforded me the opportunity to explore Israel as a complex place full of diversity. I am currently
still completing my MA at the Adam Mickiewicz University in German Philology while completing my first year
of graduate work in Germanic Studies at UIC. Currently I am working on Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s movies,
the New German Cinema, and the representation of alterity in Fassbinder’s films. I would also like to develop
my research about the representation of violence against broken, weak figures, and figures of “The Other” in
his movies as an example of transition from past to the present in post-war Germany. My original plan for this
summer was to serve as an intern at the Fassbinder Foundation in Frankfurt while conducting research on this
important German filmmaker. I am in contact with the Foundation, and due to the Covid-19 pandemic, I am not
able to travel to Germany this summer, but they are keen on offering me an internship in summer 2022. This
work will be invaluable for the internship and research work I hope to undertake next summer and for my future
research goals.

I have many educational goals, but the most important to me now are to be a specialist in the fields of my
interests and to became an excellent teacher, scholar, and writer. During my future university career, I would
love to focus on a variety of academic projects, on teaching, and on writing academic essays in the areas of
German Studies, Film Studies, Holocaust Studies, and also Memory Studies.

Phillip Cabeen

Award Amount: $4,000

Phillip is interested in subversive cultural arts movements of the 20th century, media studies, critical pedagogy,
and the intersection of these. He particularly enjoys theater, dance, and film, and was Curatorial Assistant for
Performance at the Museum of Contemporary Art for two years before returning to UIC to begin the doctoral
program in Germanic Studies. Currently he is completing the preliminary exams to qualify for thesis research,
which means laying the groundwork for a cultural studies reconsideration of the Neue Deutsche Welle. This will
be informed particularly by twenty-first century scholarship on affect and the ways in which affect determines
the relationship(s) between art and politics, and will draw as well on Germanic Studies’ rich humanist and anti-
fascist traditions. Professionally, Phillip would enjoy teaching within the academy and is also enthusiastic about
curating and producing community-building events and discussions for the public.

He earned his Master of Arts in Teaching from Columbia College, where he also worked as an adjunct
instructor for five years, teaching a series of courses on German language and culture which were informed by
his student-centered philosophy and commitment to democratic ideals. Prior to that, Phillip had lived abroad for
six years, teaching English and visiting artists’ studios in Beijing and the Ruhrgebiet, Germany. His bachelor’s,
earned at UIC, is in Art History with a particular focus on post-colonialism and the politics of display. In his free
time, Phillip enjoys exploring on foot or by bicycle, or relaxing with his cat.

Zachary Fiztpatrick

Award Amount: $5,000

Zach Ramon Fitzpatrick is a fifth-year Ph.D. Candidate and Max Kade Fellow in the Department of
Germanic Studies. After his bachelor’s studies, he spent a year in Koblenz, Germany teaching English as a
representative of the Fulbright Commission. He then came to UIC where he completed his master’s thesis on
Turkish German comedy film before continuing into the doctoral program. Zach has been a German teaching
assistant for several years with experience instructing first and second year basic language courses as well
as German conversation, cinema, and fairy tale courses. For three years, Zach was the German department’s
head teaching assistant, which involved organizing German High School Day. This annual event brought in
hundreds of high school students from around 15 Chicagoland schools to engage in competition, to showcase
language skills, and to preview undergraduate life at UIC. 

As a Filipino American, Zach has always been interested in relating his German studies to the vast Asian
diaspora. His dissertation, thus, focuses on the representation of Asians throughout Germany’s national film
history and contemporary Asian German culture. Zach has been selected for a Fruman and Marian Jacobson

“Bridges” Fund award for summer 2021. He will use the award to write his dissertation chapter on recurring
tropes in the portrayals of Asianness within German cinema. The recent resurgence of anti-Asian racism
sparked by reactions to COVID-19 is a reminder that Zach’s work is prescient in providing a visual/filmic history
of Orientalist discourses and tropes that have helped shape conceptions of Asianness in Germany today. In
Zach’s free time, he also runs the Instagram account called Asian German Updates, where he helps amplify
Asian German perspectives by sharing news, media, events, and other items of interest to the Asian diaspora
within Germany and the German-speaking world. Following the completion of his doctorate, Zach aims to
become a professor of German to share his passions for diversifying the German curriculum through cinema
and cultural studies.

Erin Gizewski

Award Amount: $3,200

Erin Gizewski is currently a fifth-semester PhD student in Germanic Studies at the University of Illinois
at Chicago. Her research interests include queer theory, body studies and critical approaches to film and
literature that emphasize the connection between the mind and body. Currently, she is researching fat studies
and depictions of bodily excess in German literature and film. Erin has presented at the Modern Language
Association conference in January and will present her current research at the Germanic Studies Association
conference this upcoming fall. While these conferences have allowed Erin to network and have provided her
with practice for her future academic career outside of UIC, she also continues to support her school and
program at UIC in their efforts to provide a graduate student environment that fosters productive criticism and
professional development opportunities. She recently worked with two colleagues and gave a presentation
about queer pedagogy and German non-binary language, informing those in her department and school about
the importance of varied language and teaching strategies to promote diversity and support students and the
unique backgrounds and identities they bring to the classroom. Erin teaches courses in the German basic
language program as well as an online German film course and is passionate about helping her students
broaden their horizons and learn more about the German language and culture. After she earns her PhD in
Germanic Studies at UIC, Erin plans to share her passions and teach at the college level while conducting her
own research, continually expanding her own educational horizons to share them with others.

Carley Johnson

Award Amount: $3,000

Carley Johnson is currently finishing the master’s program in the Germanic Studies Department at UIC and
plans to continue onto the PhD program in the fall. Their focuses within the field of Germanic Studies involve
Queer studies and Queer language, Jewish studies, and critical theory. They have engaged with the themes
like queer linguistics and queer pedagogy, Kafka and Zionism, and Marxist conceptions of gender in Romantic
literature. In their first year of the program they received the Max Kade Fellowship award which provided
funding for their studies and allowed them to take part in activities like leading the German PopKultur Club,
working events for the LCSL, setting up conferences, and mingling with other students and faculty in different
departments. During this time, they also worked at the German International School of Chicago to connect with
Chicago’s German community and to work with younger children to teach them German. Carley is currently a
Teaching Assistant in the basic language program at UIC.

With the funding from the Bridges scholarship Carley intends to continue the research they began last year on
queer linguistics in German and queer pedagogy. Their next endeavor in this area involves writing a chapter
for a collection on queer pedagogy and social justice in the second language classroom. Although this touches
on past research, it will require additional research to position queer linguistics within a more theoretical
framework, as well as additional empirical data.

Kelsi Morefield

Award Amount: $3,000

Kelsi is a second-semester master’s student in the Germanic Studies program. With the Bridges Fund Award,
Kelsi will spend summer 2021 taking an intensive German writing course at the Goethe-Institut in Chicago as
well as compile research on right-wing extremism in Germany since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
She will use this research to teach a unit on right-wing extremism in a course on current German culture and
politics in the Fall 2021 semester.

John O’Hara

Award Amount: $3,000

John Harvey O’Hara (he/him or they/them) is a first-year graduate student in the MA in Germanic Studies.
His research interests include LGBT culture in the Weimar Republic, the revival of pre-Christian religions
in Europe, and right-wing extremism. Through investigation of these topics, John hopes to illuminate both
historical issues like the marginalization of LGBT sex workers and modern issues like the radicalizing potential
of social media algorithms. Following his graduation from the MA program, John aims to complete a PhD in
Germany and to become a professor in the European Union. He hopes that as an openly gay and transgender
professor he could serve as a visible sign of possibility for LGBT students, as John’s own mentors did for him.

Before joining the MA program, John completed his BA in Economics at UIC. During his undergraduate
degree, John volunteered as Public Relations Officer for the UIC Economics Club and competed in the Federal
Reserve Bank’s College Fed Challenge, in which John and his teammates developed economic analysis and
monetary policy suggestions. Additionally, he received the Ronald Moses Award in recognition of service to the
Economics Department and his classmates.

Prior to attending university, John worked as an EMT in the Chicago area and researched health policy and
healthcare access at Chicago’s Howard Brown Health Center. Common threads through John’s professional
life include a concern for the wellbeing of others and a desire to make information accessible to experts and
non-experts alike.

Outside the classroom, John is an active member of the Chicago pagan community and often volunteers with
a religious organization for LGBT people. At a local level, he works to ensure that events are accessible to
people regardless of race, gender, and ability. Following the pandemic, he looks forward to volunteering with
neighborhood gardens and a recreational sports league for transgender adults.

Maryann Piel

Award Amount: $5,000

Maryann is a Ph.D. candidate in the Germanic Studies Department at UIC. She is currently working on her
dissertation entitled “Self-Made Royalty: Celebrity in German Literature.” She received her B.A. in German
Business Translation from Northern Illinois University in 2013 and her M.A. in Germanic Studies with a focus
on Early 20th-Century “Outsider” Literature from UIC in 2016. Throughout her time at UIC she has had the
opportunity to grow as a researcher and language instructor. Since 2019 Maryann has focused on conducting
research for her dissertation. In 2019 she was selected as a fellow of the Notre Dame Berlin Seminar, entitled
“Literaturbetrieb: Key Players in Germany’s Literary Institutions,” as well as conducting research at the
Staatsbibliothek in Berlin and the German National Library in Leipzig. Furthermore, she participated in the
workshop “The Mann Family: Lives and Fictions” at Dartmouth College in the Fall of 2019 and participated
in the Goethe Society of North America’s Dissertation Workshop in October of 2020. Most recently, Maryann
has been selected as a DAAD Research Fellow for the academic year 2021/2022 during which time she will
be working with Prof. Christian Klein at the Bergische University in Wuppertal. In addition to her academic
pursuits, Maryann has been developing her professional skills. She is currently serving as Head Teaching
Assistant in the Basic Language Program at UIC and has previously taught German language courses at
Carthage College and DANK Haus Chicago. In addition to her work in the classroom, Maryann has participated
in several teacher training seminars including “Deutsch für Lehrer” in Berlin and the “Flipped Classroom”
Teaching Assistant workshop in Chicago, both put on by the Goethe Institut. In 2019 Maryann was selected

to attend the “Technology Enhanced Learning” workshop at Carnegie Mellon University where she developed
new strategies to integrate technology into the classroom most effectively. Finally, Maryann served as
Conference Coordinator for the 2017 Austrian Studies Association Conference and assisted with various
projects at the Goethe Institut-Chicago including a German-STEM teacher training seminar, and translating
and editing German language teaching materials around the topic of sustainability.

Lucas Riddle

Award Amount: $3,200

Lucas Riddle grew up in Stoughton, Wisconsin. He received his bachelor’s degree in German in 2011 from the
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He also holds a master’s degree with a double concentration in Germanic
Studies and Translation from the same institution. At UIC, he is a PhD candidate and German language
instructor in the final semester of the program.

Lucas was introduced to the German language in High School, where he took language classes all four
years. His interest in German as a potential career path developed a year later when he spent six months
in Eberswalde, Germany to attend language classes in Berlin in an immersive environment. This time spent
in Germany informed his decision to major in German at Milwaukee. He also returned to Berlin on a DAAD
undergraduate scholarship in 2011 to study at the Freie Universität FU-Best program for European studies. As
a language instructor during his master’s studies in Milwaukee, he discovered his love for teaching.

In Fall 2015—after two years of working professionally as a translator—Lucas enrolled in the Germanic
Studies PhD program at UIC. After his first year, he had the opportunity to spend the 2016-17 academic year
at Humboldt University in Berlin as a graduate exchange student. In early May, Lucas will defend dissertation
entitled “Laughter from the Margins: Minority Humor in Contemporary German Literature.” His dissertation
focuses on the use of humor in minority, migrant and refugee writing in contemporary literature written in
German. After completing the program, Lucas hopes to continue to work in international higher education. .

Lilian Schreiner

Award Amount: $4,500

Lily Schreiner is a first-year graduate student in the Germanic Studies MA program at UIC but isn’t new to the
campus! Lily started and completed all four years of her Bachelor of Arts in Germanic Studies at UIC as well.
She also added a minor of Biological Sciences, an academic pursuit that stemmed from her keen interest
in genetics. Her educational and career goals go hand in hand: to remain on-campus as a faculty member
within the realm of academic advising is her highest aspiration. Lily is currently a first-year primary instructor of
Elementary German I and, through her engagement with her students, has discovered a passion for advising
and assistance. This passion and willingness to advise lent itself to her time as a German language peer tutor
through UIC’s Language and Culture Learning Center as well. Lily has come full circle, in a way; from a peer
tutor to a research assistant at the very same center she tutored at, she couldn’t be happier to have ended up
where she is today. The study and imparting of German language and culture to others plays a key role in her
life, both in and out of the classroom.

In her time away from campus, Lily has volunteered and served as an intern at the DANK Haus, a keystone
of German heritage and culture nestled within the Lincoln Square community. She spent a lot of time in the
library here as well as in the office; whether it was sorting through (and perhaps perusing…) antique German-
language books or handling marketing and social media projects, there was never a dull moment during her
time at the Haus. Lily also enjoys German film, having done her undergraduate Capstone project on The
Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.

Anne Wooten

Award Amount: $650

My name is Anne Wooten, and I am in my last semester of the Germanic Studies M.A. program at UIC. I came
into the program with a bachelor’s degree in German Language and Literature from Northern Illinois University.
This fall of 2021 I will begin a PhD in Germanic Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. After this, I look
forward to a career in German studies.

At UIC I was able to work on many new areas of research as well as working on my previous interests
like language teaching and pedagogy. I spent the majority of my studies being a Teaching Assistant
which I enjoyed very much. With this I was able to expand on my previous teaching experience from my
undergraduate studies and become a more confident and skilled educator of German. I loved sharing my
knowledge of current German culture with my students and helping them figure out how the language can be
useful and fun. Throughout my M.A., I specialized in German film and queer and gender studies. I enjoyed
questioning gender constructs within the context of German film and tended to do this quite often throughout
my time at UIC.

My career goals are still in the making, but I am striving to find a career that involves local communities and the
field of academia.

Community involvement is a staple in my life. For the last two years in my local climbing gym, I have been
running a women’s rock-climbing group in which I advocate for climber safety, positivity, and health. In this
group, I help give women a common place to gather, feel safe, climb, and have fun. My other community
involvement coincides with teaching. Teaching has allowed me to create connections with other educators so
that there is a flow of ideas and a network of shared teaching materials and methodologies. .

Danke!
Thank You!

Dear Mr.Fruman and Mrs. Marian Jacobson,

I am writing to you to express my sincere gratitude for giving me the opportunity to
receive the “Bridges Award.” I was pleased to be selected as a recipient for 2021, and
I am deeply grateful for your support, for believing in me, and for supporting me in the
pursuit of my scholarly and professional goals.

Currently I am working on the New German Cinema and in particular the
representation of alterity in Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s films. My research explores
the representation of violence against broken, weak figures and figures of “The Other”
in Fassbinder’s movies as an example of the transition from past to present in post-
war Germany. My original plan for summer 2021 was to serve as an intern at the
Fassbinder Foundation in Frankfurt while conducting research on this extraordinary
German filmmaker. I am in contact with the Fassbinder Foundation, the director of the
Filmmuseum in Frankfurt am Main, Ms. Isabel Bastian, as well as with Fassbinder’s
former editor and assistant, Juliane Lorenz. Unfortunately, due to the Covid-19
pandemic, I will not be able to travel to Germany in summer 2021, but Ms. Bastian is
keen on offering me an internship in summer 2022. At the same time, I will be able to
conduct my research in the Fassbinder Archive. This internship will help me with my
future research goals. I have many educational goals, but the most important to me
now is to be a specialist in the fields of my interests, to became an excellent teacher,
scholar, and writer. During my future university career, I would love to focus on a
variety of academic projects, on teaching, and on writing academic essays in the areas
of German Studies, Film Studies, Holocaust Studies, and also Memory Studies.

I am very grateful and honored to be a recipient of the “Bridges Award” again this
year. My educational pursuits would not be possible without you and without your
generous support. Thank you for the financial support that will enable me to work on
my Fassbinder project during summer 2022 and thereby to help me lay the groundwork
for my future university career.

Yours faithfully,
Wiktoria Adamczyk

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Jacobson,

As a “Bridges” Fund award winner this year, I would like to thank you for your support
in pursuing my academic goals in Germanic Studies.

I am currently a third-year undergraduate student majoring in Computer Science and
minoring in Germanic Studies. Academically, I have been part of a computer science
research team through the Early Research Scholars Program (ERSP) here at UIC.
This year I am mentoring the current ERSP research teams and guiding them based
on my past experiences.

My favorite way of being involved at UIC is being part of the Society of Women
Engineers (SWE) chapter, which I have been since my freshman year. I was able
to develop my professional skills by attending general body meetings and hearing
from guest speakers representing different engineering fields. My favorite events I
have volunteered at were community outreach events such as ‘Mom, Me and SWE’
organized by SWE and ‘Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day’ organized by Women in
Engineering Programs (WIEP).

I enjoyed volunteering at SWE and WIEP to inspire young girls interested in STEM
so much that I decided to become an SWE Outreach Co-Chair this academic year of
2020-2021. I co-organized two virtual ‘Mom, Me and SWE’ outreach events for 40+
middle school students featuring Bioengineering and Electrical Engineering.

I enjoy Computer Science, but I also enjoy learning languages which is why I decided
to minor in Germanic Studies. It has been my academic dream to study abroad to
solidify my German language skills and to immerse myself in the local culture. I believe
that the Austria-Illinois Exchange Program is the right fit for my goals.

I am beyond thankful to have your support through the “Bridges” Fund to pursue a
semester-long study abroad experience in Spring 2022 if it is safe to do so considering
the current health conditions.

Sincerely,
Noemi Andras

Dear Fruman and Marian Jacobson,
Thank you for your offer of financial support as I travel to Berlin to begin my
thesis research and participate in the Humboldt exchange. Naturally everyone is
waiting to see exactly how things will develop as Germany continues to grapple with
vaccination, but if all goes well, I will be spending the coming academic year in Berlin,
and in addition to supporting that experience, your support will also make several trips
possible to archives and collections that lie outside of the Berlin area, specifically the
Ruhrgebiet and the musical archives in Leipzig and Frankfurt.
As you may recall, I will be writing about the Neue Deutsche Welle, an
interdisciplinary cultural moment of the late seventies and early eighties, much
disparaged by critics as “apolitical” and commercial. I continue to believe that, as with
the Biedermeier and the Weimar Republik, the Neue Deutsche Welle represents an
under-appreciated milestone in Germany’s understanding of and approach to politics
and aesthetics, identity and community. Further, I observe this approach currently
seeing a resurgence, not least due to similar economic and social dynamics in Europe
today.
The coming year’s travels and research will be invaluable towards demonstrating
the above claims, and your support will be extremely meaningful in making that
possible. Thank you again for your generosity!

Sincerely,
Phill Cabeen

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Jacobson,

I am sincerely honored to have been selected as the recipient of the Bridges Fund.
My name is Gabriela Chacon. I majored in Biology and minored in German at UIC.
My interest in studying German began when I moved to Germany for a year after high
school and had the opportunity to experience the German culture firsthand. Since then,
I have been taking classes in the language. I want to thank you for your generosity
which will allow me to prepare for a language exam and enroll at a German University.
In the future, I would like to complete a Public Health master’s program in Germany or
a German-speaking country. I would like to work for an NGO and help people around
the globe. Having lived in three different countries throughout my life, I have been
inspired to help those in need. I would like to focus on and conduct research about
the impact political situations have in determining or influencing the health system of
a country. This would be a great opportunity to implement everything that I have been
taught as well as develop new skills and improve my German readiness. This award
will allow me to have an educational opportunity that otherwise would not be possible
due to financial reasons. Thank you again for providing this amazing opportunity. Your
gift is immensely appreciated and will be used to the highest return.

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Jacobson,

Once again, I am so thankful to receive support from the “Bridges” Fund.

I have just completed my fifth year of the Ph.D. program in the Department of
Germanic Studies at UIC. I am well underway with writing my dissertation Reeling in
Asian German Representation: 110 Years of Asian German Filmic Encounters which
will be the first full-length study in either English or German devoted to the critical
analysis of Asian representation throughout the history of German cinema. With the
support of the Bridges award this summer, I will draft my chapter about tropes of Asian
representation within German cinema. With the unfortunate increase in Asian hate
crimes over the last year (also in Europe), my research seems more relevant than
ever in demonstrating the way that films repeatedly reproduce and circulate racialized
stereotypes.

Since our last meeting, I have been busy with publishing, sharing resources, and
collaborating on some projects with others interested in Asian German studies. For
instance, I posted a top 10 list of underrated Asian German films of the last decade
on Korientation, the premier website for Asian German perspectives. Through my
connection to Korientation, I also got to interview the Filipina German voice actor who
played the titular character in the German dub of the new Southeast Asian-inspired
Disney film, Raya and the Last Dragon. I was also selected to be featured on the
new platform for Asian German empowerment called “I am Asian, So What.” Soon,
two colleagues and I will also be putting out a resource for instructors teaching Asian
German film topics; our list will be published on UC Berkeley’s “Multicultural Germany
Project” website.

Finally, your continued support of my Asian German research has led me to receive
the prestigious Mellon-CES dissertation completion fellowship for my final year of
graduate school. Only 10 people in the US receive this award each year! It proves to
be an exciting year devoted to research, professional development, conference travel
to Portugal (if possible), and beginning the job search in the fall.

Thank you again for all that you do to help us young scholars!

Warmest regards,
Zach Ramon Fitzpatrick

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Fruman Jacobson,
I am writing to thank you both for the generous funding I have received from the
Fruman and Marian Jacobson Bridges Fund. These funds will provide me with a crucial
opportunity to advance my research, academic, and ultimately career-related goals
over the summer.
As a PhD student at the cusp of being able to write my dissertation, it’s important
that I think about ways to enhance my CV and publish an article. Your funds will allow
me to focus on reworking a draft of my master’s thesis that I have presented numerous
times at conferences over the past two years. This extra time without needing to hold
another job will provide me ample opportunity to work with my advisor, Professor
Schlipphacke, and craft a clean, well-written article that is sure to increase my chances
at being published. This time will also provide me with invaluable experience reworking
a piece under careful supervision, a skill that I have been working on and will need
to further develop in order to reach my career goals and become a professor and
researcher at a university or college. Even sooner than that, however, working with
Professor Schlipphacke will help me develop revision skills and processes that will aid
me when I write and rework chapters of my dissertation.
The article itself will make important interventions into the reading and analysis
of contemporary Austrian writer Elfriede Jelinek’s noble prize-winning work The Piano
Teacher (Die Klavierspielerin). Using a queer methodology, I explore Jelinek’s work
under a unique lens that takes into account the ways the reader and main character
interact with each other to produce an active, living text that resists reproducing fascist
structures the very same text critiques. This intervention is not just important for this
particular text, but in combining two theories that are unconventionally used together,
I also demonstrate and open up new possibilities of reading other texts in a similar
manner. Additionally, the money awarded by the Bridges Fund will also help me to
further support and contribute to the graduate college Germanic Studies program as
I publish an article and continue to be an advocate and testament to the wonderful
education and guidance I am receiving at UIC.
Mr. and Mrs. Jacobson, I cannot express enough my gratitude for this critical
opportunity the Jacobson Bridges Fund will provide me this summer. With your help,
I am able to pursue personal research and come closer to my overall career goal:
earning my doctorate, becoming a professor, and fostering a love and passion for
German language, culture, and literature in future generations of Germanic Studies
scholars. Thank you.

Sincerely,
Erin Gizewski

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Jacobson,

I am so grateful to you for providing me with the opportunity to continue doing research
during the summer. Last summer you generously aided my research project which was
aimed at queer and feminist language in German, namely gendergereche Sprache
and non-binary pronouns. My goal with that project was to collect information on these
topics so that my classmates, students, and superiors would be educated on these
particular sociolinguistic developments in Germany. Since I finished that initial project,
I have become a teaching assistant and have had the opportunity to put my research
into practice with my students. I have also presented this research to the School of
Litheratures, Cultural Studies and Linguistics at UIC as well as at the University of
Kansas.

The topic of gendergerechte Sprache remains a priority in my scholarship, and the
more I work on it, the more I see opportunities for intersectionality and social justice. I
have been networking with other scholars who work on queer linguistics and through
this have been encouraged to submit a chapter for a book on queer linguistics and
social justice in the second language classroom. This chapter will open up many doors
for German language studies due to the
“disruptive” nature of queer linguistics, while positioning the German classroom as a
productive setting for critical reflection. And your funding will make this possible!

Thank you again so much for your generosity. The work that you are funding is so
important for the trajectory of German studies and second language acquisition. As we
have seen with the initial project, this work will expand beyond our little cohort at UIC
and reach people around the world.

Vielen herzlichen Dank,
Carley Johnson

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Jacobson,

I am incredibly honored to have been chosen as one of the recipients of the Bridges
fund. My name is Evan Lange, and I recently graduated from UIC with a degree in
Sociology. I am incredibly excited to be beginning my graduate studies in German this
coming fall. My interest in German first began when I was a child. As a descendant of
German immigrants, I was often surrounded by German-speaking relatives and people
who embodied and celebrated the vibrancy of the nation. I have been captivated
with the language, culture, and history ever since. I first started taking German
courses about six years ago when I enrolled at College of DuPage. Since then, I
have continued to study informally and formally. My interest led me to completing an
internship at DANK Haus German American Cultural Center in Lincoln Square during
the summer of 2019. It was then that I finally decided I wanted to pursue studies in
German post-undergrad. During my time at UIC, I had the opportunity to work as peer
tutor where I found a love for teaching. I greatly enjoy being able to share my passion
for the language and to facilitate learning for others. Pursuing an MA in Germanic
Studies is a great step in the direction of one day teaching the German language. With
your immense generosity, I am going to have the opportunity to adequately prepare for
my graduate studies by taking courses this summer. This is incredibly important to me,
as I am beginning a new era of my life, and without your support, I would not be able to
immerse myself in the language, culture, and history like I will be this summer. Thank
you so much for this opportunity and for contributing to this next stage of my life and
pursuit of a vocational calling. I am incredibly grateful.

Sincerely,
Evan Lange

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Jacobson,
I would like to begin by thanking you both for your kindness and generosity.
The establishment of the Bridges fund has opened countless doors for UIC students
interested in improving their German language and cultural knowledge. All of the
recipients and the entirety of the Germanic Studies Department are grateful.
My name is Kat Mamulashvili, and I am a rising senior pursuing a BA in
Communication with a double minor in German and Spanish. I am honored to be
one of the recipients. This award will help realize my ambitions in being a part of the
international business and affairs community.
Given my dedication with the German language and culture, I hope to work with
German-American relations. At the moment, I am still unsure of what position I’d like
to hold and which sector I’d like to be involved in (whether it is government or public);
however, my desire to positively represent the United States has been a constant
factor in my life.
Nelson Mandela is often quoted as saying, “If you talk to a man in a language he
understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his own language, that goes
to his heart.” Thus, speaking German is essential to my aspirations of establishing
meaningful and optimistic connections between Americans and Germans. I will use the
Bridges Fund to enroll in a 6-week German language course over the summer offered
by the Goethe-Institut. I hope to rigorously refine and expand my capabilities with this
course, and I trust I will do just that. It is a unique and exciting opportunity that I could
not have afforded otherwise.

Last fall, the café where I worked every weekend to support my studies closed
permanently because of the pandemic. I was lucky enough to be offered positions as
a research assistant and a teaching assistant for the last two semesters, but I was
terrified for what would happen to me this summer without my second job. The Bridges
Award is the reason that I can focus on my studies and research this summer instead
of worrying about how to make it to the fall. Without it, I would not have the time or
resources to take part in the amazing summer research I have in front of me.
The next few months, I am getting the opportunity to take a rigorous writing
course at the Goethe-Institut here in Chicago, which will undoubtedly help with my
scholarly and professional writing in German. The course even covers writing emails
and blogs which is key for professional relationship building as well as publishing my
content independently. Additionally, Professor Imke Meyer has given me the incredible
opportunity to compile research on right-wing extremism in Germany since early 2020
and build a unit around it. In the fall of 2021, I will teach students in one of her upper-
level German courses everything I learned from my research and inform them about a
topic that I find not only fascinating but necessary to discuss.
Teaching Professor Meyer’s students about this topic is in the direction of what
I would like to do with my career long-term. This early into my graduate career it is
hard to say exactly where I see myself in a few years, but I know for sure that I would
like to have a voice in the crucial discussions about political and cultural extremism
in German-speaking countries and America alike, be that teaching my own class
someday, writing essays for publication, or working for a nonprofit.
In the meantime, my summer research relates directly to the research topics I
wish to focus on during my MA. Right-wing extremism, gender and sexuality studies,
and women’s studies are all topics where I hope to develop my knowledge and
someday publish research. Focusing on right-wing extremism gives me the freedom
and the focus to discuss a large range of targeted social groups and the discourse
surrounding them. By fall 2021, I expect to have a strong foundation of knowledge
to build up from in my studies, research, and professional relationships. When I
continue my studies after my MA, either to earn my MA in Communication or a PhD
in Germanic Studies, having this specialty will allow me to demonstrate my research
and instructional abilities surrounding this topic and thus around any topic which may
interest me in the future.
I thank you for so generously giving me this wonderful opportunity. Although it
is just a few months, engaging in this research during my only MA summer will hugely
impact my professional and academic future. Your generous gift allows all of us in the
Germanic Studies program to live out our academic goals right now and to make the
most of every moment as a student at UIC.

Kelsi Morefield

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Jacobson,

I am writing to thank you for the 2021 Bridges Fund award. It is a great honor to
receive this, and I am very grateful for your generosity.

I am currently finishing my first year in the Germanic Studies MA program, and this
summer I will complete research related to my MA exams and my prospective PhD
topic. Additionally, I will complete an intensive language course that will hone my
German skills in preparation for pursuing a PhD in Germany. These summer activities
will occur due to the gift of the Bridges Fund, through which I am able to undertake all
of these plans simultaneously.

Thank you again for your generosity, and I look forward to sharing with you the results
of my work this summer.

Sincerely,
John H. O’Hara

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Jacobson,

I am very grateful for the generous donation you have made to the Department of
Germanic Studies and want to express my gratitude for the personal funding I have
been awarded. With your financial support I will be able to dedicate my summer break
to revising the latest chapter of my dissertation and preparing an article version of the
chapter for publication. I am so looking forward to spending this time focusing on my
research and writing!

I would like to take this opportunity to share a little about my current research and how
my dissertation is developing (and will continue to develop over the next months).
As you may remember, I am working on a dissertation entitled “Self-made Royalty:
Celebrity in German Literature,” in which I contextualize the influence of celebrity in the
lives of famous German authors, as well as within their literary texts. I am especially
interested in what the lens of celebrity can reveal about the influence of gender, age
and social class on how literature is produced, received and remembered in literary
history. The chapter I am working on now, entitled “La Roche and Goethe: Authorship
in the Enlightened Age,” makes central the epistolary novels that made each author
famous. Sophie von La Roche’s novel Die Geschichte des Fräuleins von Sternheim is
particularly significant, as it is the first German novel penned by a woman. I compare
this novel, its development process and the reception that follows to Johann Wolfgan
von Goethe’s world-famous Die Leiden des jungen Werther in order to make sense of
these significant contributions to literary history of 18th-century Germany in the context
of celebrity.

This semester, I have spent my time broadening and deepening my knowledge of
the epistolary genre, the biographies of both authors, the relationship between La
Roche and Goethe and contemporary thought on the concept of “Genius”, especially
in relation to gender. With the encouragement and guidance of my adviser, Heidi
Schlipphacke, this chapter has really started to come together. I am especially keen
to pursue the possible direct influence of La Roche’s novel on Goethe’s, which
has yet to be explored in great detail. I am excited to be adding something new to
the conversation about texts and authors that have been so influential on German
literature. Over the remaining weeks of the semester my goal is to complete the first
draft of this chapter.

Thanks to your very generous support, I will be able to dedicate the summer months
exclusively to revising this chapter and then preparing an article version of the chapter
for publication. This is really exciting for me, not only because this is the first time
since beginning work on my dissertation that I won’t have to split my time between TA
responsibilities in the department and my own research, but also because I have yet to
submit any work for publication. It has been a goal of mine to finally contribute to the
field in this way, and I am so grateful to have this time to prepare something polished.
Of course, in addition to sharing my research, publishing is also vitally important for
building a competitive portfolio when I enter the job market. Furthermore, it is really
important for me to wrap up (at least for the time being) my work on this chapter, as I
will be beginning a DAAD Research Fellowship in the fall at the Bergische Universität
Wuppertal in order to conduct research for Chapter 2 (The Novel and the Real:
Celebrity and Literary Access) and Chapter 3 (Making the List: Literature and Celebrity)
of my dissertation.

Thank you for your continued support!

Kind regards,
Maryann Piel

Dear Fruman and Marian Jacobson,
My name is Alex Przybycin. I am writing to express my gratitude for your
generous award, as it not only allows me to further my education and career but also
brings me closer to my heritage. Though I find myself close to the Polish community of
Chicago, as my parents were born in Poland, my grandparents were native Germans
who were displaced by WWII. Their strong work ethic and commitment to education
has shaped my life as a student which is why I am delighted to connect with the
German community in Chicago and experience life in Germany. Having known German
culture through my family and neighbors, I took German classes throughout my high
school education and continued through college. In my undergrad years I took several
trips to Germany which allowed me to truly embody my research and ancestry. From
seeing cutting-edge technology in Berlin, to the original handwritten work of Franz
Kafka, to experiencing the standing societal issues I learned about in class.
These experiences significantly contributed to my path in a research career as
a cognitive scientist, which has far reaching implications for a range of disciplinary
fields. Currently I am a Master of Computational Social Science student concentrating
in cognitive psychology at the University of Chicago, which was inspired by my
undergraduate research in Germanic studies and psychology at the University of
Illinois at Chicago. As I continue my research on the cognitive mechanisms of language
learning, I hope to make learning of a second language accessible to anyone. I am
also contributing to the technology field with methods of human-computer interaction
while learning about computational science and the future of quantum computing.
One project I am working on is an iPad game for learning a second language with the
hope of allowing players to reach brain activation patterns similar to those of a native
speaker. This is a community-based citizen-science project that is being brought to life
with the help of underrepresented minorities from outside of academia who want to
use cognitive science methods in their own work. I will be using the Bridges Award to
gain insight on research in this field through the perspective of German institutions by
taking two courses. One course is on psycholinguistics through Deutsche Uni Online,
the other is a cognitive engineering course through Technische Universität Berlin
which integrates cognitive research and technology. These courses will benefit me
as I search for jobs in the tech industry, which will provide me in valuable experience
when I pursue a PhD. Thank you very much for helping contribute to the success of my
future career.

Mit freundlichen Grüßen
Alex Przybycin

Hello Mr. and Mrs. Jacobson,

My name is Alex Rank, and I am one of the recipients of the generous grant you have
given the Germanic Studies Department here at UIC. I would like to thank you for the
amazing opportunity I will be able to experience because of your generosity. In the
spring semester of 2022, I will be attending Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany.
I am currently a sophomore pursuing a double degree in Public Policy and Germanic
Studies with a minor in Criminology, Law, and Justice. While I do not know exactly what
I want to do with my life, I would like for some of it to be spent in Germany. Studying
abroad will provide me with a foundation for living in a foreign country and learning
the culture firsthand. My father is from Germany, so going to Germany will connect me
back to my roots while strengthening my German language skills. I am very grateful for
this opportunity and am very excited to visit Germany.

Many Thanks,
Alex Rank

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Jacobson,

I am writing to thank you very much for supporting with the Bridges Fund Award my
summer project to develop a collaborative virtual exchange for UIC’s fourth-semester
German-language course, German 104. Without your extremely generous support,
I would not be able to conduct necessary research, connect with, and collaborate
virtually with a partner institution in Germany to develop this exciting cross-cultural
exchange opportunity for UIC German students.

To introduce myself briefly – my name is Lucas Riddle, and I grew up in Stoughton,
Wisconsin. I have been a PhD student in the Germanic Studies department at
UIC since Fall 2015. On May 4, I am defending my dissertation on minority humor
in contemporary German literature. My interest in German Studies, the German
language, and its culture has been ever-growing since I took my first German course
in 2003 as a freshman in High School. Following High School, I lived in Eberswalde,
Germany for six months and took language classes in Berlin. This stay in Germany
solidified my decision to pursue German as a major during my undergraduate work
at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and later as a career. I have lived in Germany
on two other separate occasions – as an undergrad in 2011 and in 2017 as a PhD
student – both times in Berlin. In addition to my bachelor’s degree at UW-Milwaukee,
I also received at MA from the same institution with a concentration in Translation and
Literature in 2013.

The virtual exchange project will be a collaboration between UIC’s Department of
Germanic Studies and the Study Abroad Office as part of its Global Virtual Exchange
Classes (or G-VEC) initiative. The G-VEC initiative—or COIL (Collaborative Online
International Learning) as it is sometimes known—makes use of online instructional
tools to connect students across languages, cultures, and time-zones to ease access
to cross-cultural learning. With the G-VEC initiative, UIC’s Study Abroad Office
provides support to faculty who wish to add a virtual cross-cultural component to their
courses. For German 104, I envision a short-term group project in which our students
would partner in pairs with students at the German institution. My hope is that the
structure I build will be compatible with any course content so that future instructors
and faculty can use it as a model.

German universities typically have a wide range of courses in Deutsch als
Fremdsprache (German as a Foreign Language) at all different levels, offering
many options to best suit the abilities of our students at UIC. The student body at

these Sprachenzentren (language centers) consists of German learners from across
Europe and the world who are working to improve their language skills either to meet
the language requirements to begin studying in Germany or to boost their language
proficiency to improve in programs in which they are already matriculated. Like UIC
students in the German Basic Language Program, these DaF students come from a
variety of majors and disciplines. Collaborating with these students would demonstrate
to our students how integral German language learning is to the international student
experience at German universities. They will also learn to discern a variety of non-
native accents in German while getting a diverse, international perspective on das
Studium in Deutschland—a central topic on the German 104 syllabus. What is more,
our students will be able to interact and work with students who might not know English
and with whom they would not be able to communicate without a shared knowledge of
German.

As you might be able to tell from this short summary of my experiences, my passion
for the language, culture, and literature of Germany is both personal and professional.
However, over the last years, my interest in professions in higher education have
broadened past the tenure-track. Last summer, I worked as an intern at the UIC’s
Office of Global Engagement and explored the field of “international education”.
I became particularly interested in the academic affairs and programming side of
international education. Yet, when seeking positions and in job interviews, I have found
myself, for the most part, only able to discuss “transferrable” experiences. While my
past work in German departments is certainly valuable, this project will provide me with
direct experience in international project management and development.

Thus, I am extremely grateful for your support for this project, as it will certainly help
broaden career options down the line. I am very excited to begin work on it and to be
able to share this work to provide new opportunities for UIC German students next year
and beyond.

Thank you.

Best regards,

Lucas Riddle

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Jacobson,
I am reaching out to extend my most sincere appreciation and gratitude on your
selection and funding of my Bridges project. My name is Lily Schreiner and, while
I’m not new to UIC, I’m new to graduate school. This is my first year in a graduate
program, and I just completed my bachelor’s in Germanic Studies this past May. I
cannot wait to begin my project, as I know it will propel me to new heights in terms
of my career aspirations. I will be partaking in an intensive summer training in the
advising department, working alongside and shadowing other UIC academic advisors.
I cannot express enough my gratitude for this opportunity. I never would have thought
something like this would be possible. It is such a rare opportunity to be able to train
and shadow in this field and, thanks to your support, I am able to seize it. In the
meantime, I am wrapping up my first semester as a primary instructor of Elementary
German I. Teaching this class did nothing but further fuel my interest and passion to
assist and advise UIC’s student body. It is amazing to think that, just two years ago, I
was a German language peer tutor at UIC’s Language and Culture Learning Center. I
have gone from tutor to teacher. From here, I hope to make that leap to advisor. There
are very few things in this world as fulfilling to me as teaching and imparting German
language, culture, and knowledge to others, and providing assistance and advice to
those who need it. The opportunity to combine these passions means more to me than
words can express.
I thank you deeply for the opportunity to pursue a path that would not have been
open for me if it were not for your support.

Sincerely,
Lily Schreiner

I come from a middle American family of Polish farmers and housecleaners,
German nurses and retailers. People who never left the south side of Chicago and
didn’t ask for too much. People who left behind little more than black and white
photographs and a legacy of perseverance. Like everyone else here, I operated under
the assumption that my life would follow suit: You work hard and you will move up in
the world. I’m now the first woman in my family with a college degree and, after four
years of struggling to balance class full-time and work menial jobs, I was greeted into
adulthood with a pandemic, a recession, over $100,000 of debt, and a furlough from
my job. Utterly unable to plan for the future.
I’m now faced with an opportunity I never thought possible: a tuition-free Master’s
degree in Comparative Literature at Heinrich-Heine Universität in Germany. After
3 years of German courses at UIC and a life-changing summer abroad in Berlin at
Humboldt University, I feel as if I’m well-prepared to commit to two years here working
on speaking, reading, and writing German fluently in preparation for the workplace. The
teachers and faculty in the German department were the most welcoming people at
UIC, many of whom I’m still in contact with post-grad and have continually supported
me even after I left UIC, writing references, giving me advise on my Master’s proposal
and, now, advising me on life-saving funding opportunities. This attitude from the
department in general has really made my interest in German last and their expertise
in the field has made me feel confident that I can and will use my German skills in my
future career. I was in the English and Political Science department at UIC, but the care
the German faculty took in its students really had an effect on how I viewed learning a
second language. I started with Spanish because it was required but, when I switched
to German, I began to see that learning a second language is extremely valuable (I
think especially as an American).
Spending two years in Germany also means seeing my friends again and
developing more of a connection to my family’s roots, which has already made this
horrible year more worth while. Apart from Berlin, I’ve spent semesters studying at
Queen Mary University of London and University of Cambridge, Pembroke College
and have traveled to more countries than I can count on both hands. Despite growing
up in the dead center of the United States (or maybe because of that), I discovered a
passion for traveling, food, and language that only comes from being deprived of it in
youth. I’m constantly seeking mobility. That said, it can come as no surprise that my
Master’s dissertation will revolve around the “Female Gothic” genre of Enlightenment

literature, detailing the female experience of entrapment and the infamous condition
of “hysteria” that plagued so many women in the Long 19th Century. The research
will be an expansion on my brief 3,000 word essay on the Female Gothic and how it
pertained to Jane Eyre, The Turn of the Screw, and The Yellow Wallpaper. After having
already studied this literature in the country where it was written, I see no better place
to study it further than where Enlightenment’s ideological beginnings were amongst
the strongest. This will inevitably bring in strong historical influences to my research
and, in Germany, 19th century enlightenment history is by no means in short supply.
Alas, the current lockdown in Germany makes it nearly impossible to explore venues
for research, but I look forward to personally visiting the many libraries and exhibits
that Düsseldorf (and all the major cities so close it) have to offer. Once it’s safe,
one of my first trips will be to the European Enlightenment Research Library at the
Universität Potsdam. For now, it’s online catalogue will do nicely. At HHU, there are a
wealth of faculty from both English- and German-speaking countries with very diverse
educational and research backgrounds, giving the program it’s intended “comparative”
element. This diversity of teaching can only enhance the depth of my chosen subject.
My post-grad goal is to study International Law, likely in the U.S.. My dream
job is to work in diplomacy, combining my love of travel, language, and international
relations and for which German will be an essential skill. I aim to secure an internship
in an embassy/consulate while I’m in Germany, getting hands-on experience in this
field, both professionally and linguistically. I would like to be comfortable working in a
bilingual environment in time for law school. Getting my Master’s degree in English
here simultaneously satisfies my professional and language learning goals and will
prepare me for the rigors of law school writing and reading (hopefully in German and
English). Without having done a Bachelor’s thesis, I was left with an unfinished feeling,
as if all the learning I had done came to a drastic halt and was without any cohesion.
I’m eager to further refine my academic writing in the form of meticulous dissertation
research and writing. My program is structured with the intention of readying students
for this, assigning two elective courses in different fields, a Professional English course,
and a “Basic Module” (which essentially teaches comparative literature across all 6
fields of the department) each semester. Around the second year, the work becomes
more independent and research-based in the form of project modules and colloquiums.
However, (*record scratch*) my plan to work and put myself through this degree,
had been foiled by the chaos of Covid-19 and a miscommunication from the U.S.

consulate. In fall 2020, I was on a visa appointment waitlist for 7-12 months, unable to
work, and unable to leave the country until I obtained this visa. The almost 8,000 euro
cost of living in Germany is just not something anyone I know has sitting on a shelf. I
was very seriously facing the prospect of having to get back on a plane and pass on
this ‘free’ degree just because I was given the wrong immigration advice. I emailed
every German-American organization in the Midwest begging for scholarships. My
parents (who, in all my 22 years of life, have never offered me money) offered to pay
for my insurance every month because they don’t want me to miss this opportunity
either. I emailed my German and English professors asking for help. Thanks to your
generosity and the Bridges scholarship I was able to stay in Germany. As I write this,
all I can think about is how I want those four years of work to mean something. I want
it to get me somewhere and to be recognized. Being able to have the experience of a
funded Master’s degree in Germany would make it all worth it. Thank you Mr. and Mrs.
Jacobson.
Sincerely,
Tavia Sons

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Jacobson,
My name is Anne Wooten and I am in my last semester of the Germanic Studies
MA program at UIC. I want to thank you so very much for allowing me the opportunity
to take a German course at the Goethe Institute of Chicago with the help of the Bridges
Fund.
With this award, I have planned to take an intensive online German course at the
Goethe Institute of Chicago this summer. This experience will help me in numerous
ways. It will help me in continuing my graduate studies, which I will begin at the
University of Texas at Austin this fall towards a Germanic Studies PhD. The course
at the Goethe Institute will allow me to improve my German so that I can continue my
studies comfortably and have a solid knowledge of German for my PhD.
At UIC, I was able to work on a lot of new areas of research as well as improving
my previous interests like language teaching and pedagogy. I spent the majority of
my studies being a Teaching Assistant. With this experience, I was able to expand on
my previous teaching experience from my undergraduate studies and become a more
confident and skilled educator of German. I loved sharing my knowledge of current
German culture with my students and helping them figure out how the language can be
useful and fun. Throughout my MA, I specialized in German film and queer and gender
studies.
My career goals are still in the making, but I am striving to find a career that
would be involved in local communities and the field of academia. I am sure that
teaching will remain central in my career.
More information about me is that my community involvement is a staple in my
life. For the last two years in my local climbing gym, I have been running a women’s
rock climbing group. I advocate for climber safety, positivity, and health. In this group,
I help give women a common place to gather, feel safe, climb, and have fun. My other
community involvement coincides with teaching. Teaching has allowed me to create
connections with other educators so that there is a flow of ideas and a network of
shared teaching materials and methodologies.
Thank you again for your support and for your investment in my future. Without
you, I would not be able to keep improving my German expertise without this much
ease.

Sincerely,

Anne Wooten