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General Info | Contacts | Role

The ACN contact for this program has resigned. Please email alumni@yfu.org if you would like to become the contact for this program or have a story to share.

Found Alumni from our Class:
Ken Simcox (ken_simcox@hotmail.com)

Ken's Story:
What have I done with my life since I was an exchange student:

After returning from Germany in 1994-95, I finished my senior year of high school and then started at Ohio State in Columbus, Ohio. In keeping with the Reisefieber I caught while in Ratzeburg for the year, during my sophomore year I taught the Orientation and Language Course outside of L.beck in Bad Schwartau, and then during the summer after my junior year I studied Swedish and Scandinavian Politics in Uppsala, Sweden. I graduated from Ohio State University with my ever-so-marketable degrees in German Literature and an honors contract in Interdisciplinary Studies, along with a minor in Film Studies (which was a sheer accident! I promise, Mom!).I wanted the chance to work abroad after school and "give something back" while slave wages wouldn't be such a big chock for me. I applied for the international intern position with YFU Sweden in Stockholm from July until January. After completing the winter "tour of duty" in what we so affectionately called "God's Refrigerator", I was asked to stay for an extra six months and continue working as a full time employee at the ever-changing office--and I accepted.

In April these plans changed, however, as I was offered--and eventually accepted a six-month contract in the Human Resources Department of the Star Alliance Business Center on the Lufthansa Base in Frankfurt, Germany as an assistant in the Human Resources Dept.

This means that I spend most of my life in airplanes now. The work week I am chained to a phone and desk in Frankfurt and the weekends are spent winding down in Stockholm with friends. I keep a strong contact to my host family here in Germany, as well as to the family who hosted me for my first five months in Stockholm...it is always great to be able to walk into a place not too terribly far away and feel "at home", even if you are 5 000 miles from the place you grew up.

So, after the initial six months at Star are completed, I hope to continue working with Star Alliance for a few years and then return to finish up my master's degree. But then again...who knows!? I still keep a strong contact to my host family here in Germany, as well as to the family who hosted me for my first five months in Stockholm.

It is great to hear that someone is keeping contact going for people who returned, and I hope that a few other people are able to get "reunited" through this--would be great!

Greetings from Frankfurt!

Ken Simcox