Recent UW Grad Earns Prestigious Study Abroad Fellowship to Germany

Lauren Sauley has already taken one study-abroad trip to Italy this spring. Now, she has the opportunity to continue her postgraduate educational journey to Germany for a full year.

Sauley, from Colorado Springs, Colo., recently graduated from the University of Wyoming with a bachelor’s degree in geology, with minors in biology and honors. Her academic resume has earned her a prestigious Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange for Young Professionals (CBYX) Fellowship.

The program annually provides 75 American and 75 German young professionals the opportunity to spend one year in each other’s countries -- studying, interning and living with hosts in a cultural immersion program.

Sauley studied abroad once before -- from May 22-June 5 -- during the spring semester, traveling with other UW students and faculty members to Ischia, Italy, to complete a philosophy course studying environmental aesthetics.

Going to Germany will be an entirely new experience for her, especially living in that European country for a year.

“I am very excited and grateful to be accepted into the 41st cohort of CBYX, especially because I have been interested in Germany’s push toward geothermal energy since learning about it during my UW degree work,” she says. “I hope this opportunity will help me to build geological career connections abroad, as well as to gain insight into what the up-and-coming geologic projects look like globally.”

The CBYX program for young professionals consists of three phases: two months of intensive German language training; one semester of classes in the participant’s academic or career field at a university, technical or professional school; and a three- to five-month internship in the participant’s career field.

The first part of the CBYX program involves spending two months at a German language school. From the information Sauley has received, she will attend one of three possible schools, though she is not yet sure where she will be assigned.

“I have never taken German classes before, nor do I have any prior experience with the language,” Sauley says. “This is something that is fairly common among CBYX participants, and I am very excited to begin learning a second language.”

Similar to the language school, Sauley will receive information later about which German university she will attend for her semester’s worth of classes. She plans to take geology and art-related courses to help with a well-rounded schedule.

As for her internship to help complete her fellowship, Sauley will be responsible to search for and secure it during her university study program.

“I hope to be able to intern at one of the Max Planck Institutes throughout Germany, though I am very open to experiencing internships elsewhere,” she says. “The internship period will last for the final five months of the program, during which time I will be living with a host family in order to experience complete cultural immersion.”

Max Planck Institutes are research institutions operated by the Max Planck Society, with most located in Germany. More are in other European countries and the U.S. institutes are organized into five sections, according to their research areas: astronomy and astrophysics; biology and medicine; material technology; environment and climate; and humanities.

Sauley’s professional career goals are to work as either a geologist or an astrobiologist.

About the Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange for Young Professionals

CBYX is open to candidates in all career fields, and applicants from a broad range of backgrounds are selected for the program each year. The U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs sponsors CBYX, under the authority of the Fulbright-Hays Act of 1961.

Cultural Vistas has administered CBYX for 40 years.