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German Universities – Apply Now for Fall 2022!

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Wait! What? German public universities are accepting applications for fall 2022 now?

Yes, unlike US colleges and universities that have finished their admissions cycle for the upcoming year already by May, most German universities haven’t even started yet by that time. They are just about getting ready to open their application portals at the end of May or the beginning of June for students starting their degrees in the upcoming fall. The application deadline is usually July 15th. This means that you can register and apply to your favorite German university right now! Depending on if you choose a locally restricted major you will have to use Hochschulstart.de on top of the particular university’s application platform.

Hochschulstart.de helps many universities in Germany with the organization of the selection process for students who applied to locally restricted study programs. But, not every university uses Hochschulstart, so check each university’s website carefully or connect with its admissions office.

Uni-assist is another application platform that some German universities work with. Uni-assist is often the go-to platform for international students applying to German universities, but some universities make German students use it, too, if they have received their secondary leaving diploma and their Bachelor’s from schools outside of Germany.

Are you interested in finding out more about what makes Germany the ideal destination to get your undergraduate degree? Want to learn how to apply to a German university? Were you wondering what German students with a US high school diploma need to be aware of before they can apply?

Join Global College Advisers for an introductory webinar “Study in Germany – The Basics” this Thursday June 16th at 11am.

Register for the webinar here.

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Article Contribution – Global College Advisers, LLC

Global College Advisers, LLC is an educational consulting firm that helps students to get into college in the USA and abroad. Global College Advisers (GCA) offers full college application support, including college research, college list building, application strategy, essay/personal statement support, and more. Find out more about how GCA can help you with the College Application process in the United States or abroad at http://www.globalcollegeadvisers.com

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Team Germany needs Players for World Baseball Classic 2022

German Team World Baseball Classic on California Germans

The German Baseball Federation is looking for Baseball players with German heritage/ancestry for the upcoming World Baseball Classic Qualifier in 2022.

The requirement for participation for Team Germany in this tournament is:

  • You have a valid German Citizenship/German passport
  • You are eligible to get a German Passport
  • You are born in Germany
  • One or both of your parents are born in Germany
  • You are a legal resident in Germany
  • Your parent/s has/have German Citizenship

Please contact Steve Janssen, Manager German National Baseball team, if you have any questions or for further information at coachsteve10[AT]gmail.com

https://californiagermans.com/team-germany-needs-players-for-world-baseball-classic/

How To Break Into Acting in Los Angeles – Angel Hass Shares Her Best Tips

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Dancer Actor Angel Hass CaliforniaGermans

Dancing brought her to Los Angeles. Acting is making her stay.

Welcome to a new XPAT Spotlight Interview! Today we are talking to Angel Hass, a dancer and actress from Germany who made Los Angeles her new home.

Having been a dancer all her life, Angel Hass worked as a performer and dance teacher while also finishing her BA in health communications in Bielefeld. After visits to California and Florida for leisure but also for professional development in dance, an acting workshop in Los Angeles had a profound and long-lasting effect on her. She realized that acting is the missing piece of the puzzle that would make her the artist she desires to be, and her L.A. adventure suddenly took on a completely new dimension.

What brought you to Los Angeles?

Originally, I came to Los Angeles for a four-week ‘Acting for Film’ workshop at the New York Film Academy, but my desire for acting and being on stage is what has kept me here so I could pursue my dreams.

My love for California began when I did a road trip with a friend in 2012. I loved the sun and the whole California vibe. Four years later I visited California again, this time for three months so I could take different dance workshops like Debbie Reynolds,  Movement Lifestyle, Millennium Dance Complex, and Edge. Despite my growing desire to live here, I actually did not expect to make California my home.

In fact, I was briefly thinking about staying in Miami after having attended some dance-related activities there but that’s when I booked the course at the New York Film Academy in Los Angeles and things just started falling in place by themselves. I feel that I finally have arrived at the place where I want to live and settle.

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CaliforniaGermans introduces Angel Hass dancer Actor

My love for California began when I did a road trip with a friend in 2012. I loved the sun and the whole California vibe. Four years later I visited California again, this time for three months so I could take different dance workshops like Debbie Reynolds,  Movement Lifestyle, Millennium Dance Complex, and Edge. Despite my growing desire to live here, I actually did not expect to make California my home.

In fact, I was briefly thinking about staying in Miami after having attended some dance-related activities there but that’s when I booked the course at the New York Film Academy in Los Angeles and things just started falling in place by themselves. I feel that I finally have arrived at the place where I want to live and settle.

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Sprichst Du Deutsch? Why not? – UNESCO International Mother Language Day

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UNESCO believes in the importance of cultural and linguistic diversity for sustainable societies and declared February 21st to be International Mother Language Day . Since 2000, International Mother Langauge Day has been observed annually worldwide with the intention to promote awareness of linguistic and cultural diversity and to promote multilingualism.

German Language Schools in the United States celebrate this day with the campaign “Sprichst Du Deutsch? Why Not?” encouraging students to learn more about their heritage by studying German and inspiring others to get to know more about Germany and its culture by means of its language.

By scanning the QR-codes in the picture below you can learn more about German Language Schools in the USA and about the motivation of students wanting to learn the German language.

To get a head start finding some options to learn German in California connect with GASA, the German-American School Association of Southern California.

Image: @GLSC-German Language School Conference

California College Application Countdown

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The Countdown for Applying to Public Universities in California has begun.

While students in Germany won’t lose sleep over college applications just yet and keep preparing for the Abitur, students in California, and in fact all over the USA, have been working on their college applications since summer. If a college is high on a student’s list they might have even applied already, either Early Action or Early Decision, with both having had deadlines around Nov 1st.

California’s public state universities impose yet another deadline, November 30th! Since the UC as well as the CSU university system are highly regarded, many students in California are in a frenzy to meet the universities’ deadlines.

California State University Systems – UC & Cal State

California has two fabulous State University systems: the UC (University of California) and the CSU (California State University). While many UCs enjoy international recognition, UC Berkeley and UCLA come to mind; the Cal States have a few schools in their own system that are highly regarded in California but also within the USA. Admission there can almost be as competitive and selective than it is at the UCs. I am particularly thinking of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Cal Poly Pomona, and San Diego State

What’s the difference between UC & Cal State?

Aside from the size, the UCs serve about  280,000 students spread over 10 campuses while the Cal States have about 485,000 students on their 23 campuses, both university systems are highly respected. So, what sets them apart? We’ll address three defining differences.

1- Approach to Education 

While the UCs prepare students for careers in academia and graduate school, and are highly focused on research, Cal States’ focus is on hands-on education and helping students prepare for practical, non-research oriented professions. Having said that though, there are still many options available for students to engage in research and even go on to graduate school at the Cal States. Over 50,000 students are currently pursuing graduate degrees at Cal States’ 23 campuses. 

2- Cost of an Undergraduate Degree

An important difference to consider, however, is the affordability of a degree at the Cal State or UC system. Being the largest public four-year university system in the USA, the Cal States outscore the UCs for making a Bachelor’s degree a much more reasonable option for many students. The in-state tuition for a Cal State Bachelor’s degree lies around $7,000 while out-of-state tuition is about $18,500.

In comparison a Bachelor’s degree at a UC school has a price tag of about $14,000 for in-state tuition and about $43,500 for out-of state tuition. 

Since these tuition prices are for one year only and don’t include room & board, this is certainly a component that international students should consider when applying to a California university.

3- Application Process

As part of the application to a UC school, students need to answer four Personal Insight Questions (PIQ) and describe their extracurricular activities, not just list them. Students can choose from eight prompts, each potentially giving insight into a student’s character, make up, and life experience. While each “PIQ” can only be 350 words long, it takes time to be thoughtful with your words and make the best use of the given space. 

The Cal State application, on the other hand, seems easy and very straight forward with the part of self-reporting your grades being the most time consuming activity. No essays or answering of any personal questions is needed. 

Final Thoughts

In summary, we think, that everyone in California, who is applying to college, should have one or two Cal States in their mix of colleges they apply to. As mentioned before, they offer a quality education at an affordable tuition price and, should admission to one of the competitive UC universities not turn out for you, you can’t go wrong with an education at the Cal Sates. 

Article Contribution by Global College Advisers

For more information on College Applications in the United States or abroad, please check out Global College Advisers’ website at http://www.globalcollegeadvisers.com

Connecting Young and Old by Simply Conversing in German

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LanguageLine, a non-profit, aims to connect German-speaking senior citizens with young, enthusiastic German language learners of high school age. 

Andrew Kelmanson, a language enthusiast and junior in high school had the idea for LanguageLine in 8th grade after he started teaching himself languages like German and Russian in 7th grade.

He realized that there was a two-sided need that could be fulfilled between students and senior citizens. Language learners like himself could benefit from conversing with native speakers, and senior citizens who spoke German could connect with the younger generation. All together this intergenerational exchange helps create an opportunity for both sides to form beautiful friendships along the way.

The project started out with small meetings in Louisville, Kentucky, where Andrew organized for German senior citizens and high school students to come together and meet over coffee and discuss various topics in 2018. When the Covid-19 pandemic hit, local meetings weren’t possible anymore, so Andrew created an online meeting solution via his website LanguageLine, which is now connecting senior citizens with language learners in a virtual setting worldwide. Languages, that LanguageLine serves at the moment, are German and Russian.

If you are a student or senior citizen and you are interested in joining LanguageLine to start a conversation, either to improve your language skills or to share your knowledge and life experience in your native language, you can find more information here.

Images ©AndrewKelmanson

Zimt Bakery ships Christmas Plätzchen in California

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No time to bake “Weihnachtsplätzchen”? No problem. Let Zimt Bakery take care of it this year!

The love for baking and fond memories of her Oma Doris from Stuttgart made Alina Tompert launch Zimt Bakery in 2020 during the pandemic. Growing up in California she happily joined her mom in the yearly family tradition of backing “Plätzchen” during Christmas season from an early age on. However, she was particularly impressed by the package of Christmas Cookies that her Oma Doris sent from Germany each year for the holidays. It contained an assortment of about 20 beautiful, unique, lovingly crafted “Guadsle” (the Swabian expression for cookies).

Alina Trompert - Zimt Bakery

After her grandma’s passing, Alina turned to baking from the recipes that she inherited from Oma Doris: “I am thrilled to present the lineup of Zimt Guadsle for the traditional holiday baking, and my own mash-up of modern flavors in our seasonal line up of Plätzchen”.

Zimt Bakery specializes in Plätzchen and Guadsle, the former being Zimt’s modern seasonal take and the latter being Zimt’s traditional holiday cookies rooted in Oma Doris’ recipes. Over the holidays, Zimt Bakery will offer also homemade Lebkuchen Hearts which are customizable with a name or message. And even our furry friends can join in the delight of freshly baked cookies. Zimt Bakery also makes Plätzchen for Paws! 

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German Movie Nights with telescopefilm

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Ready to turn your home into a German Film Fest for the holidays?

The holidays are usually a great time for some cozy family movie nights. And this year with so many restrictions in place due to the pandemic even more so; movies can transport us into a different world and let us escape these strange times for a good two entertaining hours or more, of course, if you like to binge-watch.

Telescopefilm’s ‘German Films Microsite‘

Justine Barda, CEO of telescopefilm.com, a company that promotes international films to American audiences, teamed up with German Films this year to create a German Films microsite on Telescope. This site offers audiences a database with an abundance of German films and series with information about where to watch them online in the USA.

Check out telescopefilm.com/germanfilms and build your own holiday list today. There are many ways to go about finding the perfect movie. Either choose the search function and look for a particular movie or get some ideas on what to watch by checking out the recommendations at Telescope’s Spotlight, which presents a new themed international film selection every week. 

Either way, you can’t go wrong. Be it a movie from the wide international film selection or one of more than 30,000 German films. The choice is yours.

Here are a couple playlists for certain search terms we tried:

“Weihnachten”: https://telescopefilm.com/search?findfilm=weihnachten&x=0&y=0&searchby=0

“holidays”: https://telescopefilm.com/search?findfilm=holiday&x=0&y=0&searchby=0

Just get the popcorn and you’re ready for the show! Enjoy!

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Image: Pixabay

Bavarian Yodeler in Hollywood – Meet Kathrin Jakob, Bringing Authentic Oktoberfest Vibes to California

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What’s Oktoberfest Time without some real Yodeling?!

Welcome to a new edition of our XPAT Spotlight Interviews. Today we’ve invited Kathrin Jakob, a real “Müncher Kindel” by birth and ‘Yodel Star in Hollywood’ to share with us not only her story but also some Oktoberfest vibes. Born in Munich, Kathrin grew up in Lower Bavaria, in a village called “Wallersdorf”. She now lives in South Pasadena, CA. 

What inspired you to move to California?

Before I moved here I studied Vocal and Piano at a vocational school for music in Regensburg, Germany. Some of my teachers there had studied music in the US and that planted the seed in me that I could do something similar. I graduated with a degree but didn’t feel “finished” in any way and I started researching music colleges in the US. I visited Los Angeles to tour two schools with my mom and immediately fell in love with the city, the weather, and the people. That same year I moved to LA to continue my studies at the Los Angeles College of Music in Pasadena.

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