German Program Recognition

Since 2011, the German Program at Colby College has hosted one of only seven test centers in the United States (-the only Liberal Arts College!) that can administer the Wirtschaftsdeutsch als Fremdsprache exam. Developed by the German-French Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the WiDaF has been endorsed and recognized by many leading international cooperations and Fortune 500 companies and is currently administered in 21 countries around the world. With the introduction of a German for the Profession course, students at Colby are able to prepare for the WiDaF-test to measure and certify proficiency in professional German at the intermediate and advanced levels. Since the exam was first offered at Colby in 2011, dozens of students have successfully completed the German for the Profession course and the majority of students have received C1 and even C2 scores (CEFR, ACTFL equivalents for Superior and Distinguished).

Please contact Arne Koch, akoch, with any questions regarding German for the Profession or the WiDaF.

In 2018, the German Program at Colby was a designated German Center of Excellence by the American Association of Teachers of German (AATG).

Arne Koch and Briana Killian ’21 received the Center of Excellence award at the American Association of Teachers of German‘s annual conference in New Orleans in November 2018. They also co-presented a paper on environmental humanities and German studies at the annual conference for the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, held concurrently with the AATG conference.

Additional information on the award and the AATG Center of Excellence initiative can be found on the website of the AATG.