AATG Awards Ceremony

By Sabine Woerner, co-director

Effort and Saturday sacrifices paid off for six young students of the German language schools of DANK Northern Suburbs of Chicago. They were invited to the 60th annual Student Awards Ceremony of the American Association of Teachers of German (AATG) at Northwestern University in Evanston.

On Sunday May 1, 2016, parents, teachers and students came together at the festive Leverone Hall to honor the students who have taken the national German exam this past January. About 200 high school and language school students received scholarships, medals and certificates for scoring in the 90% of this year's exam. Of the almost 50 students from the DANK language schools in Arlington Heights and Palatine who took the exam this year, six of them received top scores and earned the honor to go to the awards ceremony.

Accompanied by their parents and siblings, their classroom teachers Margaret Plank and Sabine Woerner, the 10-13-year-olds felt grown up in the presence of professors, German teachers and high school students from all over Northern Illinois. The official ceremony concluded with refreshments of cookies, gummy bears and juice. The beautiful campus of Northwestern and the welcoming community of German teachers and students, made the trip to Evanston well worth it.