Liebe TCGIS Alumni Students and Families,

We here at TCGIS hope you are enjoying the start of your fall, and new school year! There have been some changes and exciting updates at our school which we are pleased to share with our alumni community:

Our new logo and rebranding! We have refreshed the TCGIS logo to represent the school we have become and what makes our school a special community of students, educators and parents who share our five school values:

Curiosity. Kindness. Challenge & Support. Intercultural Engagement. Community.

We thank TCGIS parents Ellen Thomson and Liz Kästner and art teacher Mary Henry who volunteered their time and talent as professional graphic designers on the creative team, and Rich Iwen and Katharina Schirg on the Board’s Communication Committee for collaborating to make this happen!

A beautiful new permanent art installation in our atrium that bridges time and space. As most of you know, the new construction of TCGIS rests on the site of the former St. Andrew’s Church. Some of the gorgeous wooden pipes from the St. Andrew’s organ were safely set aside by TCGIS board member Rich Iwen and Facilities Committee member John Steingraeber in the hopes of finding a meaningful new use for them some day. Members of the Design Our School 2022 Team Mary Henry, Amy Lenburg, Christopher Tabisz, Dianne Bell, Erin Meyers and Courtney Veszi conceived of the idea of using the pipes to represent the sound wave for the German word gemeinsam—together, a word we use frequently at TCGIS in the phrase Gemeinsam sind wir stark—Together we are strong. Artists Courtney Veszi and Erin Meyers designed the structure, and Randolph Meyers engineered the massive installation. 

Capstone is back! On September 14, 36 students and 7 teachers from three schools in Germany arrived at TCGIS and were welcomed by their host students and families. These students will experience life with their host families, the daily school routine at TCGIS, and lots of wonderful activities around the Twin Cities. When our students go to Germany in May, they will already have established connections with these new friends, who will serve as their host families.  We are so proud of this program, which is one of largest back-to-back exchanges in the country. It provides a uniquely innovative opportunity for our students to live out our mission of German immersion and our value of intercultural engagement. 

Alumni Volunteer Opportunities

Oktoberfest Fun Run: this Saturday, October 1st

Come join us as 5K course marshals! Reconnect with friends and teachers from TCGIS and cheer for the students running in the 5K while building up your resume with awesome volunteer experience.

We need alumni to join us Saturday October 1st at 11am at the Como South/East Pavillion at 1199 Midway Parkway. You'll be stationed at different spots along our 5K route. The 5K will last from noon until about 1:15pm. Your responsibility will be to direct the runners so they know where to go, and to cheer for the kids who go by.

Please email Erin Meyers if you are interested in volunteering.

Halloween Trick or Treat

October 29th, 1-3PM

Join the TCGIS PTO and host a table for our annual Halloween Trick or Treat Party while beefing up your resume with awesome volunteer experience.

On October 29th from 1pm - 3pm we will be hosting an outdoor trick or treating blowout for the school community with a DJ and massive amounts of candy.

Bring your family and friends, bring a table and halloween decorations, and candy to give out. You'll get to take on the adult role and dish out goodies... and maybe eat a few too. Sign up to host a table here. 

2014 TCGIS alum Tia Ruh recently accepted a position as a high school teacher in Billings, MT. This academic year Tia will be accompanying a group of students traveling to Germany. Tia graciously answered some questions for us about her experience at TCGIS and her new teaching position.

Kinderclub, our before and after-school childcare program, is hiring! We love when our TCGIS alumni return to work at our school, and Kinderclub is a great opportunity due to its schedule flexibility, the chance to interact and help out with TCGIS students, and the opportunity to practice your German!

Please reach out Michaela Bromenschenkel if you are interested in a part-time afternoon (3-6 P.M.) and/or morning shift (6:30-7:50 A.M). Thank you!

We are seeking families to host 9-11 interns who will join TCGIS in January 2023! If you are interested in hosting an intern - or learning more about hosting - we invite you to read the Host Family FAQs and then join us for a virtual Info Meeting:

Tuesday, Oct. 11, 7:00-7:45 p.m.

Zoom link (also available in the TCGIS Google calendar event)

All interested families are encouraged to fill out this brief interest form which also provides space to share specific questions in advance so we can answer them in person at the meeting on Oct. 11.

Tell us more about your TCGIS experience. What did you appreciate about TCGIS?

It was a very singular experience for the students who grew up alongside TCGIS- I mean literally grew up while witnessing the school grow with them, pioneering a new grade level each year. The grade ahead of my class was the first graduating class in TCGIS history, and our grade was the first to run the entire K-8 circuit. A graduating class of 11 students creates a really special class atmosphere, especially considering how many have known each other since their first day of school. We were also bonded by virtue of being the Testkaninchen for TCGIS's budgeoning school curriculum and pedagogical philosophy, and our experiences and feedback directly influencing that formation and traditions. It's incredible that the school has grown so much and that so many students are now able to learn German, it really is impressive. But a lot of my most treasured memories centered around school-wide projects and events we did as a school community, like die Kulturwoche, die Deutsche Übernachtung, der Gemeinschaftsgarten... and those kinds of things would be almost impossible to replicate on the much larger scale of the TCGIS student body today.

You recently accepted a position teaching German in Billings, Montana - congratulations! Can you tell us more about this position and any upcoming trips to Germany?

Although I did NOT plan to start teaching so soon, I was inspired to work with the Billings school district's incredible German teachers, who are nationally recognized leaders of the teaching community when it comes to creative and contemporary German pedagogy. But with my newly reliable salary, I plan to travel to Germany in my summers off and become a volunteer farmhand through the WWOOF organization. 

How do you feel your time at TCGIS helped prepare you to get to where you are today?

Growing up with German and within the TCGIS environment is an experience unparalleled in value for students who truly seek to become bilingual. Even when circumstances forced our family to take a leave from my TCGIS education, the foundational language skills I had learned from kindergarten through fourth grade proved to be retained well enough that I could jump right back into learning even after 3 years with minimal German exposure. There was no German program at my high school, but the positive attitude surrounding language learning fostered by TCGIS drove me to try learning Spanish, which I took for 4 years. It wasn't until my junior year of college that I found myself missing German so much that I changed my major to German Studies- and even with a 6 year hiatus from regular practice, I was able to communicate at a college level and test out of years of language credits, which even helped me graduate early. I attribute that language fluency and passion to my early start at TCGIS, and the way in which I learned German there.

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