Alumnus Story: January 2018
Kurt Olausen, Class of 1990
1. Please provide a brief description of your path after Dickinson and where you find yourself today.
I went on to earn two graduate degrees (M.Ed. in Counselor Education and and Ed.D. in Higher
Education Administration), and have been working as a study abroad advisor/administrator since 1994. I am currently Director of Study Abroad at Eastern Illinois University.
2. Please describe your studies at Dickinson, in particular your German courses.
Well, they were German courses, both in Carlisle and in Bremen. I had a second major in Italian Studies and particularly remember taking a course on Dante during my year in Germany. We had copies of the book with the original Italian on one side and the German translation on the facing page.
3. What is your strongest memory of studying on the Dickinson campus?
Really just the community that existed.
4. Did you study abroad? Where and when?
Yes, in Bremen during the 1988-89 academic year. I also spent the summer of 1988 in Urbino, Italy on a program administered by Rutgers.
5. What are your memories of studying abroad?
The six-week student strike that shut the university down. That was truly a cultural experience!
6. Do you still speak German on a regular basis? If so, in what way?
Not really. I occasionally need to read something and realize how rusty my German is at this point.
7. Whether you still use the German language actively in your life or not, what else about your studies in
German or in Germany proved important to you?
If I hadn't studied abroad, I would not have the career I have today. And I always point out to my students that when I studied in Germany, there were 2 Germanys--some of them seem to have missed that part of their history class.
8. If you could give advice to a current or potential German major/minor, what would it be?
Be sure to study abroad, and the longer, the better!