Herzlichen Glückwunsch! German Society of Maryland Awards

The German Studies program is proud to announce the recipients of the German Society of Maryland Awards

Mareike Debye is a Junior double-majoring in Business Management and German Studies. Being a heritage speaker, she first started taking German classes for some external accountability to maintain and improve her German, but quickly decided to add the major once finding a community within the German department. Since then, Mareike has become an avid participant in the Language House Living-Learning Immersion Program, the Language Partner Program, and Delta Phi Alpha. For the future, Mareike plans on graduating in Spring 2024 and exercising her diverse skill sets in an administrative position within higher education.

Paulina Leder (GERS/HIST Major, FREN Minor) Paulina Leder is a senior pursuing a dual degree in History and German with a triple major in French. Growing up with a German father and an American mother, Paulina became fascinated with German language and culture at an early age. At UMD, she continued to pursue this interest, combining it with her love of History. After falling in love with the city of Berlin while studying abroad in Spring 2022, she hopes to return for graduate school after a gap year following graduation.

Paulina was also recognized as one of this year's Undergraduate Researchers of the Year. She was nominated by her thesis advisor in History for her Honor's thesis on the East German filmmaker Konrad Wolf. She will be presenting her research on May 5th at 1pm, in the History Department's Honors showcase.

The German Society of Maryland German Major Award recognizes outstanding Majors studying German at colleges and universities in Maryland and Washington, D.C. and comes with an award of $1,000 each.