Watch the trailer for the city of Bonn's new image campaign right here or on our new YouTube-Channel! Do you like it?

Yes, even Germany has skyscrapers, as the New Europe and Visualization students discovered on their trip to Frankfurt last Wednesday. And even though they might not be as high as in the States, they are still impressive...

Starting their day with a visit of the European Central Bank, the New Europe students had an insightful presentation and discussion on the European Union's monetary and fiscal policy and the current measures taken against the economic crisis. The visit was followed by individual activities as well as a city tour through the old and new parts of Frankfurt. Fascinating, how much the city is changing: the work on the new “Palace Quarter” is completed, the University about to start its remodelling process, and the demolition of the Technical Town Hall and the Historical Museum are in full activity.

Meanwhile, the Texas group explored art in public spaces and were astonished to learn that the Paulskirche is not used as a church anymore and the buildings on the "Römerberg", Frankfurt's old town square, are not as old as they seem. Before getting the chance to talk to professionals at a local video game company, the students enjoyed the perfect view and "Mainhattan feeling" from one of Frankfurt's highest buildings, the Main Tower.

A nice dinner in the renown and picturesque wine region "Ahr Tal" concluded this exciting day and made our American guest aware of the fact that good red wine is cultivated just a little south of Bonn.

"The Bonn trip is amazing. It is like a real world business trip." - Participant 2009

Every summer, students of Loyola Marymount University's College of Business Administration visit Bonn as part of the program “The Environment of Business in the European Union”. Using Bonn as a hub, the program includes overnight excursions to Brussels (Belgium) and Maastricht (The Netherlands) as well as day trips with corporate and institutional visits to Frankfurt, Cologne, and Duesseldorf. Program participants get to enjoy the unique opportunity to interact with industry decision-makers and highly-ranked institutional leaders as part of their learning experience during this two-week course.

Take a look at a short version of the video produced by Paul, who was a participant of the program in Summer 2009 on our YouTube-Channel.

The complete video can be found here!

Finally, the Rhineland's fifth season has arrived. Although still recovering from the Berlin&Prague Excursion, there was no way to hold the New Europe Kids back from celebrating Carnival. Having been hyped up about these crazy days for the past weeks, the students put a lot of efforts in their customs and appropriate Carnival behavior: The truth is, "Kamelle", "Bützje" and "Alaaf" sound even more charming with an American accent and was of course rewarded with lots (...and lots!) of candy and flowers at the Carnival Monday Parade.

16 students from the Visualization Department of Texas A&M University have been in Bonn since mid-January. Although they have become acquainted with the German culture quite well, one important thing was still missing: attendance at a soccer game. Most of the students have been to games of their college football team, which usually plays in front of a crowd of 83,000. Nevertheless, the students greatly enjoyed the atmosphere they got to experience during the stand-off between Fortuna Düsseldorf and local rival MSV Duisburg. Unbeaten at home (8-2-0) Düsseldorf maintained its clean record and won 2:0 with 48,500 people attending the sold out home stadium.

Take a look at some impressions in our photo gallery!

This year's Christmas outing took the AIB staff to Mayschoss, a small village situated in the Ahr Valley south of Bonn, and its surrounding vineyards. While hiking up and down beautiful snowy hills, we learned about the region's wine growing history and practices and got to taste a few samples. Afterwards, we enjoyed a hearty dinner (and more wine...) in the cellars of the world's oldest wine growers' co-op. What are we to learn out of this? "Trinken lernt der Mensch zuerst, und später erste das Essen. Drum soll er auch als guter Christ, das trinken nicht vergessen." (one of our tour guide's wisdoms!).

Deputy Mayor Angelica Maria Kappel welcomed the students to the reception room of Bonn's historical city hall, which has been a venue to receptions for many famous statesmen in the past, among them John F. Kennedy, Mikhail Gorbachev, Kofi Annan, Bill Clinton.

The New Europe Programm Spring 2010 arrived! After a turbulent journey via icy London Heathrow, the New Europe Student finally made their way to Bonn. A great academic semester with trips to Berlin, Prag, and Spain lies ahead of them...and what could have been a better start than spending a day in the snowy Eifel region.

Amazed by so much (real) snow, the LA natives not only enjoyed a mass service in the abbey church of Maria Laach, a masterpiece of German Romanesque architecture, but also spent a whole lot of time in Monreal, a picturesque little town a good hour south of Bonn.

The only thing that was more exciting than the snow? The hot chocolate afterwards...

At the end of August 2009 seven students from Trento in Northern Italy came to the AIB in Bonn for an intensive internship experience. After a five-week German language course they spent more than two months in various internship institutions:

Angela took care of small children in a day-care center, Marco sold skater clothes, Maya supervised teenagers with difficult family backgrounds and Lorenzo worked at a PR and marketing agency. Giulia spent her internship at a fitness center, where she was given the opportunity to acquire the training license for aerobic classes. Alice immersed herself in the study of various artists at a museum and Patrizia supported an international youth exchange organization in their daily work.

Seperated from the group, in their respective internships each and every one of them was forced to communicate in German  -  and within the sixteen weeks they were in Bonn they made a big step forward in deepening their proficiency in spoken and written German!

Happy to be back for Christmas with their families, all students were sad to leave Bonn. But two of them are already planning to come back – they want to start a vocational training here in Germany!

For the past four months here in the “Bundesstadt” Bonn, the students have dedicated themselves to their semester projects, a ten minute long documentary.

The students did not set boundaries on their creativity and have created interesting and very ambitious projects, set not merely in Bonn but throughout Europe.

Take a look at some impressions of the final screening in our photo gallery!

The most memorable moments of our New Europe Fall 2009 Program. Enjoy!

The winners of the AIB International Business Plan Competition have been announced at Friday night's NEP farewell party. We'd like to congratulate them, and thank everyone involved for turning this project into a memorable intercultural experience.

1. Greensteel Consulting: Promoting eco-friendly housing in the US
2. H.O.P.E.: "Helping Old People Everywhere"
3. Wind Doctors GmbH: "Keeping it Spinning"
4. Student Discovery: "Your Adventure, we can help"

The AIB students love the ice skating rink at Bonn's popular museums mile just as much as Bonn's Christmas market with it's many culinary delights.

Since the beginning of November Bonn’s Museumsplatz has turned into a skating paradise. Immersed in a magic sea of light one of Europe’s largest roofed open-air skating rinks with a surface of 1,000 square metres offers its wintery attractions.

Watch the short impression from last night, filmed by one of our current film students from Loyola Marymount Universtiy in Los Angeles on the AIB's new YouTube-Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/theAIBs

The AIB team wishes to all parents, host families, partners, students, alumni and friends a

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR FULL OF JOY AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS!

After several great years in Düsseldorf, this year's Loyola Marymount University (Los Angeles/USA) Study Abroad Film Program, in cooperation with the Television School Europe (FITS Europe) was the first to take place in Bonn.

For the past four months here in the “Bundesstadt” Bonn, the students have dedicated themselves to their semester projects, a ten minute long documentary. The students did not set boundaries on their creativity and have created interesting and very ambitious projects, set not merely in Bonn but throughout Europe.

Friends & Family Screening
To give all students the opportunity to show their documentaries, we would like to invite you on Wednesday, December 16 (Friends & Family Screening 1), as well as on Thursday, December 17 ( Friends & Family Screening 2), to the AIB, Wilhelmstrasse 27 in 53111 Bonn. To make planning easier for you, please note the approximate screening times from the schedule below. We would like to encourage you to join us at the beginning of the screenings, but will also happily welcome every latecomer.
 
Final Screening
On Friday, December 18 six selected movies, chosen by a peer jury during the Friends & Family Screenings, will be shown at the “Brotfabrik” in Bonn-Beuel. Afterwards we cordially invite you to our a reception, which will also serve as the official farewell to our American guests.
 
Evening program
18:30 Reception
19:00 Presentation of the selected movies
20:30 Reception with refreshments
22:00 End of Event
 
The AIB would be happy to welcome you to this very important event for the students and greatly appreciate, if you could RSVP by Wednesday, December 16 either by mail to  zimmermann@aibnet.de or by phone under 0228 / 33 88 39 28. We look forward to seeing you!

The students of the Landscape Architecture & Urban Design Semester program presented their design concepts for sustainable UN locations to the United Nations in Paris last week.

According to the student's project statement, the goal was: "to develop a master plan for the open space and streetscape for the surrounding area around of the United Nation campus in Bonn".

The students explored the possibilities of developing a sustainable solution to balance the impacts of the several 6000 person conferences per year at the World Conference Center on the City of Bonn.

Mr. Niclas Svenningsen, Head of Sustainable United Nations praised: "It was entirely my pleasure to listen to the excellent work that the students have made. I really see it as breaking new ground". Other UN officials affirmed the value of every student's contribution to the planning and design of UN sites throughout the world: "The student's work could be a prototype that will provide a replicable method for approaching the design of UN site landscapes worldwide, demonstrating the evolving technology and beauty of sustainability".

After presenting, the students agreed that they are surely going to reflect on the significance of what transpired at their Paris presentation for years to come.

Teaming up with students from the Bonn Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences, eight New Europe students competed in the AIB's International Business Plan Competition on December 2, presenting their business ideas in front of panel of jurors (Dr. Hassels, Rheinischer Merkur newspaper, Dr. Anatoly Zhuplev, LMU, Viktoria Börner & Ture Petersenn, AIB).

The teams had worked on their ventures throughout the semester under the umbrella of a class offered by LMU's Dr. Charles Vance in the New Europe Program. Instructor Frank Maikranz from the Bonn Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences taught the students how to develop a formal business plan and how to effectively present their ideas. The winners will be announced at the New Europe program's farewell party on December 11.

The AIB is sponsoring cash prices for the top three teams. What idea would you chose?

• Wind Doctors GmbH: "Keeping it Spinning" (windmill maintenance)
• H.O.P.E.: "Helping Old People Everywhere"
• Greensteel Consulting: Promoting eco-friendly housing in the US
• Student Discovery: "Your Adventure, we can help" (student travel agency)

Find out who won on December 14 in this spot...

Today, the New Europe Kids spent an exciting day exploring one of Europe's former largest coal-mining and steel-manufacturing areas: the Ruhr.

Kicking it off with a two hour guided bike tour through Landscape Park Duisburg Nord, the students were impressed to learn how a site where the blast-furnace heat was once almost unbearable can nowadays be used for relaxing and cultural recreation.

Without question, the former steel and coal production plant makes a clear break with its history: old gas tanks have been turned into large indoor pools for scuba divers, concrete walls are today used by rock climbers, a former cast house serves as an open air movie theater, and one of the most central places of the factory, the middle of the former steel mill, has been made into piazza. But there was even more to see than that...

One bumpy bike ride along the Industrial Heritage Trail later, the students finally made their way to the city of Dortmund, located in the heart of the Ruhr district. After a strengthening dinner of Schnitzel and Pasta, there was only one stop left on the agenda: a night tour of the Hansa Coking Plant. Although production ceased in 1992, the plant's technical equipment and buildings have remained mostly unchanged since their construction in the 20s, as the students noticed astonishingly. Equipped with flash lights and warm coats, we past by coal towers and engine houses before scrambling up a glass walled conveyor belt to the top of a towering blending bunker that allowed for a wonderful view of the artfully illuminated plant and its surroundings.

The Ruhr Area as the 2010 European Capital of Culture? With its fascinating blend of industrial nature, historic technology, an space for recreation and cultural activities – we have seen why!

Take a look at some pictures in our gallery!

A mixed group of New Europe, Film and and Texas Students caught the soccer fever at last night's match in Dortmund. Known for its intense atmosphere, the Westfalenstadium, or “Yellow Wall” as insiders like to call it, was sold out to its last seat and turned this evening into a memorable sports event. In the end, the BVB Dortmund defeated Hertha by 2:0 – even though at this night, this was only a minor detail...

You can now download our German Survival Guide for those crazy first days in Germany. When asking yourself, why you should consider learning more than the most important German phrases, think about the following reasons.

You will see that the study of German is not only an enriching experience but also offers some real advantages in your professional future. The AIB, of course, offers German language classes for all levels.

Why German?
You will see that the study of German is not only an enriching experience but also offers some real advantages in your professional future.

Did you know that over 100 million Europeans are native speakers of German? In fact, German ranks 9th in the number of native speakers among world languages. In a recent survey, German is the second-most-often taught foreign language in Europe. In Eastern Europe, 13 million students are currently studying German as a second language and even in Japan 68% of students take German!

Speakers of German occupy a prominent place on almost any list of the world's greatest artists and thinkers; every discipline in the humanities, sciences, and social sciences has a strong German tradition. Scientists from the three major German-speaking countries, Austria, Switzerland and Germany, have earned 34 Nobel Prizes in Physics, 38 in Chemistry, and 31 in Medicine alone. Three of Germany's most important writers, i.e., Thomas Mann, Heinrich Böll, and Günter Grass, have been the recipients of the Nobel Prize in literature.

Within the European Community Germany has the highest productivity and ranks second only to the United States, for example, in the number of patent approvals. Within the world community, Germany enjoys the reputation of being an economic powerhouse with some industries, such as automobile, engineering, chemical, and pharmaceutical firms leading the way for quality products in the global marketplace. Even in the field of computing, Germany is among the world's leaders.

Learning German is easier than you think! Consider words like "Hand", "Kindergarten", "Zeitgeist." Since German and English share a common historical background, many words and grammatical structures are very similar. This makes learning German easier but it also helps you understand English grammar much better. German is also closely related to many other Germanic languages such as Dutch, Norwegian, Swedish, Afrikaans, and Yiddish. Knowing German will give you a considerable advantage when you learn any other Germanic language.

Thus, knowledge of German grants access to a rich professional environment. In view of Germany's strong economic, political, artistic, literary and philosophical tradition in the world community, the career choices with a degree in German are significant. Knowledge of German always broadens both your intellectual and professional horizons, but also enhances your chances on the job market. Especially when pursuing a career in the sciences, German is very important since you have access to a world of research findings in all areas of modern science. One out of every 10 books in the world is published in German. With the knowledge of German you are not dependent on translations. Instead, you have direct access to the spirit of the original work and gain greater insight into the author's cultural background and intent.

Here are some other important sectors in which you can use German.

At college and university
A reading knowledge of German is valuable in chemistry, physics, biology, engineering, psychology, history, theology, international law and archaeology.

In business
In view of the important economic role of the European Union, a knowledge of German qualifies you to work for multinational employer who want to capitalize on export to the European Union and Eastern European countries and vice versa. Knowing German could help you get a good job and it may be a significant factor in your professional advancement.

In research and development
Germany remains one of the largest contributors to research and development in the world. A reading knowledge of German helps you in the fields of agriculture, medical and health research, alternative energies, the environment, information and communication technologies, and mineral processing.

In the arts/literature/philosophy/psychology
Many of the greatest thinkers of the modern era wrote in German: Freud, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, and Kant; Kafka, Goethe, Schiller, Heine, Hesse, Mann, Schnitzler and Grass, the list goes on and on. In music, some of the world's most influential composers like Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Mahler, Wagner, or Kurt Weill come from Germany and Austria. And, if you interested in film, you inevitably will encounter German film makers such as Fritz Lang, Werner Herzog, Wim Wenders, Rainer Werner Fassbinder and the 2003 Oscar-winner Caroline Link.

In government
If you are interested in pursuing a career in Foreign Affairs, International Trade or National Defense, German is a must. As mentioned above, Germany enjoys the reputation of being the most powerful country in Europe politically, financially and economically. These are only a few examples of possible career choices. For current openings, you may want to check the Sunday New York Times under "Bilingual".   We, the AIB staff, will be happy to answer any other questions you have regarding a possible career in German.

(Source: Deutschland.de)


Download the AIB German Survival Guide (PDF-Document)

"Wow!"

Michael Wither, Engineering, Math & Science Program participant, won the Marathon Marn in France on Sunday, June 14th. He was on a weekend trip with a bunch of his friends from the AIB when he decided to sign up for the Marathon. Little did he know that he would end up winning the competition! Congratulations, Michael!

The premiere of our Theater Semester Program Theater Piece "What is to be done?" was a phenomenal success.

The magazine "Kultur in Bonn" writes: „The LOSt ANGELeS Ensemble has succeeded in presenting a deliciously absurd play, terrifically acted and filled with fresh and electrifying ideas“.

Read more about our Theater Semester Program

„It was because of the Fits Europe study abroad program through the School of Film and Television that I was able to make this film and I just want to thank everyone involved in the program and really emphasize what an amazing opportunity it was and still is.“

Eva Kosmas - Fits student Fall 2007

Our student film "The Great Silence" has won its second award at it's second festival. In August 2008 it won "Best Student Documentary Short: Second Place" at Palm Springs International Short Film Festival and in April it garnered "Best Short Documentary: Second Place" at the Lake Arrowhead Film Festival.

FITS EUROPE - Film and Television School Europe