Do you want to play with fire and controlled explosions? This is how Weishaupt American Inc.’s representative started his speech at Goethe Institut’s Big German Career Day. On Monday, October 6th 25 Portage High School students joined over 350 high school students who visited the College of DePage to speak with figureheads from Germany, New York, and Chicago to who came to speak about how German can be used in the job market. Participating companies included Air Berlin, Bosch, German American Chamber of Commerce Midwest, Bosch, Hegele Logistic, and two student travel organizations: Deutsche Akademische Austausch Dienst, and CBYX. Germany continues to be an economic powerhouse and with this comes jobs, many in the US. In the Chicagoland area alone there are more than 250 German companies with over 500 offices in the area employing both Americans and Germans. Volkswagen has over 20 facilities in the US and employs over 3,000 people just in Chattanooga Tennessee.
Inside the school German students and teacher Candis Carey are also working together to plan activities to promote and celebrate learning the German Language. Portage High School will host its first Oktoberfest Party on Saturday October 24th from 12:00-3:00pm. There will be German lunch, live band and dancing, and some carnival type games. This will be a fun and relaxed day promoting the German culture. On November 13th at 5:00pm the German students will be at the Valparaiso Barnes and Noble singing songs and making paper lanterns to celebrate Saint Martin’s Day. It is free to attend Barnes and Noble but if participants choose to make a purchase at Barnes and Noble that day and have a flyer in hand a percentage of the sales will go to students participating in the German Exchange trip in the 2015-2016 school year.