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YSU grad gains valuable experience in Germany
The Vindicator ( Youngstown)
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Kristopher Pierson, who graduated in 2010 with a degree in mechanical engineering, recently returned after spending nearly a year in Germany as part of an exchange program for young professionals.
BOARDMAN
As many of his fellow graduates from Youngstown State University looked for jobs, Kristopher Pierson set his sights across the Atlantic Ocean.
Pierson, 23, who graduated in 2010 with a degree in mechanical engineering, returned to the Mahoning Valley in mid-July after spending nearly a year in D ºsseldorf, Germany, as part of the Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange for Young Professionals.
The program is a government-sponsored fellowship for professionals age 18 to 24 to study and work in Germany. More than 500 people applied, and just 75 were selected.
Pierson had taken German at Canfield High School and went on two class trips to Europe, but this was the first time he lived outside the U.S.
“It’s totally different than visiting,” he said.
Living there, he noticed that all grocery stores are closed Sundays, for example, and customers are expected to bag their own groceries. He said he didn’t miss driving because he could get everywhere he needed to with public transportation.
One aspect of life in Germany particularly stuck out to Pierson.
“There’s not as much diversity there as there is walking around here,” he said. “... And Germans are very quiet when they’re on the street or in public. They aren’t as loud as Americans.”
The experience of traveling abroad and being in an unfamiliar place is valuable, said Jef Davis, director of the Center for International Studies & Programs at YSU.
“We know that the world is getting smaller, and students need to have the skills that come with navigating an unfamiliar environment and the ambiguity in a new place and a new academic and social context,” Davis said.
He added that YSU offers many programs that vary in length and destination — students have traveled to 45 counties — and that graduates should remember they can research opportunities abroad like Pierson did.
Pierson began his year abroad last August with two months of German language training at the Carl Duisberg Center in Bremen. Then he studied for a semester at the Hochschule Wismar, an applied-sciences school. He finished with a five-month internship with SMS Siemag AG in D ºsseldorf.
Pierson said participants are expected to find their internship once they arrive in Germany. A YSU faculty member connected with SMS Siemag AG helped him find the opportunity there. Now, Pierson is applying to graduate engineering programs.
Although Pierson said he enjoyed his time abroad, he cautioned people thinking about the program to look at their personality, in addition to their career goals.
“It’s not for everybody. It wasn’t all happy. You miss home, and sometimes you could make a joke and no one laughs because they don’t understand it,” Pierson said.
Davis said fear often is what keeps students at home instead of overseas.
“People believe that many programs are very expensive, but no student who has expressed an interest hasn’t been able to do it because of cost. People sometimes use cost as an excuse” not to go because they are afraid, he said.
In Pierson’s case, the program paid for participants’ costs. The CBYX program is financially supported by Congress through the Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs of the U.S. Department of State and the German Bundestag (parliament). Program funding provides for airfare, orientation, seminars, housing, tuition, insurance and monthly stipends, according to the CBYX website.