Andrea Herbst

By Elise Rolandson

Andrea Herbst grew up surrounded by her family’s German heritage, and she always wanted to learn more about the culture.

“Growing up in Minnesota and Wisconsin, how do you escape the German influence? There's this lingering "German-ness" and while people cling to it as an identity of sorts, most don't really know a lot about it. So that's what got me interested,” she said.

Herbst recently received a Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange (CBYX) for Young Professionals Award.  After graduating in May with a degree in English, she will travel to Germany to continue her studies.

The CBYX for Young Professionals is a full-year work-study scholarship program with a strong focus on cultural exchange. CBYX annually provides 75 young Americans with an understanding of everyday life, education, and professional training in Germany.

Herbst believes the experience will help her to continue gaining a better understanding of other cultures. She also looks forward to improving her language skills.

While in Germany Herbst will spend two months studying German, four months at a university, and five months in an internship.  She hopes to find an internship in Germany that will allow her to gain editing and publishing experience.

Her first trip to Germany was during high school. The second was in the summer of 2007 where she spent a little over a month in Marburg taking language and cultural courses.

“It was a wonderful experience and didn’t curb my desire to live abroad, so when I found the Congress-Bundestag program I was excited because it was the immersion experience I was looking for,” she said.

Herbst came to UND after two years at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania studying animation and German language. She chose to pursue a career in English instead and came to UND because of its excellent German and English programs.