Elizabethtown students recently played host to a number of German students from Konstanz University. From Sept. 21 to 23, the German students took a tour of Central Pennsylvania, while staying at the College.
The German students were on a two-week tour of the United States and stopped at other locations along the way. Among the group were 16 German students and their professor.
Associate professor of economics Dr. Sanjay Paul arranged the German students’ stay. Paul has coordinated events with Etown students visiting Geneva in the past and coordinated the Konstanz students visit to Etown, as well.
During their stay at the College, the students were greeted by a group of Etown students involved with the exchange. After their arrival, the students were shown to where they would be staying for the few days they were at the College. Students were paired up and stayed with Etown students in their dorms and campus housing.
They were then given a brief tour of the campus and all of the various events going on. The German students were then escorted to the Marketplace, where they enjoyed dinner and conversation. Afterwards, they had a session with men’s soccer coach Arthur “Skip” Roderick.
Roderick spoke to the students about his role as head coach and how he has changed his leadership tactics over the past 30 years. The students gained a different perspective from Roderick and how the various methods of leadership have developed and how he uses them to coach the team.
The German students were also invited to a welcoming session where basic things about Etown were explained. The geographic details of the College were important to know for the events in the upcoming days.
Afterwards, the Konstanz students also presented their own presentation on their country and school for the Etown students who may not have had a great amount of background knowledge.
To start off the Friday, Director of the Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies and associate professor of religious studies Jeff Bach took the students on a tour of Amish businesses. The group was then led to lunch with an Amish family who prepared their food and conversed with them.
The group was also taken on a trip to Gettysburg where they visited the battlefields and talked about the war from the leader’s perspective and discussed the decisions they made.
At another point in their stay, there was an optional trip to go to Chocolate World at Hershey Park, where the students could learn more about Milton Hershey and the leadership roles he had.
At one time during the stay, alumni Martina White and Ryan Mulcahey were able to speak to the students about their current leadership roles. Mulcahey talked about being an associate at Morgan Stanley and how he uses his leadership skills in his job.
White graduated in 2010 as a business major. She then went into finance in Philadelphia and took on a leadership role at the Pennsylvania House of Representatives as a Republican member.
White talked to the students about being a woman in politics and how she tries to develop and change the perception of herself.
Junior John Koons took Paul’s class and went on the Geneva trip in 2016. Koons helped organize the German students’ arrival, setting them up with their host families and entertaining them while on campus.
“Even after two and a half years of working with Konstanz students and Dr. Paul, I continue to learn something new about leadership and the beautiful city of Konstanz,” Koons said.
Koons was mainly in charge of communicating with the Konstanz students.
“We meet in the fall to discuss getting the hosts and other details,” Koons said.
Koons also said the German students who visit the campus are always blown away by the fact that American colleges are set up like a small community, where the students can buy things and even live in dorms. For Europeans this is a foreign concept.
They also really enjoyed the chocolate from Hershey Park’s Chocolate World, despite German chocolate from being so different from American chocolate.
The next exchange between Etown and Konstanz University will be this May term when Etown students travel to Germany to visit their campus. There will be other excursions as well. Interested students should contact Paul pauls@etown.edu for more information.
