BUFFALO, NY - Mark Van Kerkhoven ’12, MS ’14 began studying German in middle school but discovered his true passion for the language during his undergraduate years at Canisius. His interest in the country and its culture grew when Van Kerkhoven spent a year studying abroad at the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt in Eichstätt, Germany.
This fall, Van Kerkhoven became one of only 130 students, nationwide, selected to participate in the prestigious Foreign Language Teaching Assistantship. Awarded by the Austrian Ministry of Education and Women’s Affairs, the program brings young educators, from around the world, into schools across Austria, to make learning a foreign language a lively, cross-cultural experience.
Van Kerkhoven is teaching English to secondary school students at the Federal Institute for Social Education. He will remain in Austria through May, and then pursue a career as a German and English teacher.
Van Kerkhoven earned bachelor’s degrees in German and international relations, and a master’s degree in adolescence education from Canisius.
