International – USA American Junior Year with HAI

The "American Junior Year at Heidelberg University" (AJY) programme, one of the oldest German-American exchange programmes at German universities, has been running for 66 years now and enables US students to spend a year in Heidelberg. In July, AJY students from the 2023/2024 cohort visited HAI at the end of their academic year as future alumni and alumnae of Heidelberg University.

In 1958, the first eight US students travelled to Heidelberg on the AJY programme. The programme is affiliated with Heidelberg College in Tiffin (Ohio), which was founded in 1850, but students from all over the USA now come to the Neckar. A total of 29 students from U.S. colleges and universities spent their Junior Year in Heidelberg last academic year: before the start of the semester, they attended an intensive language course at the AJY Centre on Universitätsplatz in order to further improve their language level and then choose from the widest possible range of courses, from specialist language courses at the International Study Centre (ISZ) to courses in their respective major subjects. This year, ten AJY participants also completed internships in Heidelberg, for example at schools and museums, at the German-American Institute (DAI) and at the municipal theatre. 

On 2 July, some of the students visited the HAI office together with Dr Martin Kley, who heads the AJY programme. The HAI student employee Matteo Luini – himself an international student from France who is studying ethnology and geography in Heidelberg – explained to them as “future alumni” the advantages of membership in the worldwide alumni network and in HAUS, the alumni group for alumni from and in the USA. These benefits include not only contact opportunities with other alumni around the world or, for example, favourable participation in German courses or other online training courses, but also a discount on shopping in the Unishop – which was very useful for the AYJ students who were about to leave to stock up on souvenirs and memories of their time in Heidelberg. Matteo Luini found the young "alumni-to-be" to be very interested and attentive: "They were impressed that HAI and HAUS provide them with a worldwide network that will accompany them throughout their lives and that can help them with university matters at any time."