Lukas Griffin ’20 Awarded Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange Fellowship

Lukas Griffin ’20 has been selected to participate in the Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange for Young Professionals (CBYX) fellowship program. Funded by the United States Congress and German Bundestag, CBYX is a cultural immersion program in which 75 American and 75 German young professionals spend one year studying, interning, and living with hosts in each others’ countries.

After studying abroad in Germany during his junior year, Griffin knew he wanted to return. Griffin says he gained an appreciation for the country after exploring its cities and interacting with locals. “These moments all contributed to some of my best experiences during college,” he says. “However, I believe there is more to learn and explore. The CBYX program seemed like the perfect opportunity for me to go back to Germany and really immerse myself in the culture and language.”

While at Oberlin, the computer science major from Brooklyn, New York, worked as a lab assistant for the computer science department and for the Center for Information Technology help desk. He was also a member of the club soccer team. 

During his fellowship, Griffin will take language classes, participate in an internship, and live with a host family. After his fellowship concludes, he hopes to continue living in the country and find work as a software engineer in Berlin, where he says there are a significant number of startups. 

Griffin says others should apply for the CBYX program, regardless of their degree of fluency in German. “I definitely encourage anyone who is interested to apply,” he says. “This is a great opportunity to go abroad and step out of the U.S. to see how people in another country live. No matter what your knowledge of the German language is, you should look into this program.”

Griffin credits the Department of German Studies for fostering his growth in learning German. “I would like to give a big shout to the German studies department,” he says. “The faculty work really hard to create exciting events for students. So whether it be Stammtisch at the Feve every Monday night or German movie night every Wednesday, there were always plenty of things to keep me motivated.”