A group of six Missouri Southern Communication students left the country Wednesday to attend the International Spring School workshop on “Sound—Culture—Media” which begins May 6, in Ansbach, Germany. The exciting opportunity allows the students to participate in high-quality professionally oriented courses.

While in Germany, the group will make interesting site visits to Munich, Nuremberg, and Karlsruhe. The students will also take part in a cultural program in Bavaria during their time in the host country. 

“We’ve prepared a great weekend program for the students before and after the audio courses,” said Annika Sikora, coordinator of international studies at Ansbach University. “As part of the program, we also want the students to take a guided tour through Ansbach where they will have some Bratwurst tasting.” 

Bratwurst is a unique Franconian sausage. Franconia is a region in Germany, characterized by its East Franconian culture and dialects. It commonly refers to the eastern part of the historic Franconian stem duchy, mainly represented by the modern Bavarian administrative districts of Lower, Middle, and Upper Franconia.

As part of the International Spring School, the University will also offer two smaller workshops for the students on “Media Art and the Environment,” and “Interactive Audiovisual Media.” Guest instructors from Arizona State will teach the workshops. A seventh international student from Finland will be joining the group of Southern students. 

Ansbach University was founded in 1996 and will be celebrating their 20th anniversary on June 1.  The school belongs to the newest Universities of Applied Sciences of the Free State of Bavaria. The percentage of international students is about 6 percent of the 3,100 students currently enrolled. 

According to Dr. Chad Stebbins, director of the Institute of International Studies, Missouri Southern, and Ansbach University have been partners for about 18 and a half of those 20 years, dating back to November of 1997. German native Dr. Sabine Cramer, former professor of German at Missouri Southern, brought the two institutions together, creating Ansbach University’s only partner school in the United States. 

“The partnership helps internationalize our campus by virtue of the fact that they send students here every fall,” Stebbins said. 

Ansbach University has sent as many as 13 students per semester to Southern but as of late, the number has been closer to three. 

According to Stebbins, Southern is also working on faculty collaborations between the two schools. The school of business is working on a joint certificate program with their business department and the communication department has also begun a dialogue to do some faculty exchanges between the two schools.

The students will return to the United States on May 16.