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The American Association of Teachers of German (AATG) Georgia Chapter named Christopher Ballenger, a third-year computer science major with a minor in German, the 2022 College Student of the Year. The AATG hosted an awards ceremony on May 6.

The College Student of the Year Award goes to a student who has demonstrated excellence in the study and promotion of German at a local college or university and in Georgia. The award comes with an all-expenses-paid three-week trip to Germany to take advanced German classes at the Goethe Institute.

Ballenger enrolled at Georgia Tech in 2019 after completing an associate’s degree at Georgia State University’s Clarkston Campus. His involvement in German at Georgia Tech includes working as a German research assistant for the German program and serving as the secretary of the Georgia Tech German Club since Fall 2021. Ballenger also won first place at the 2021 Goethe Student Research Symposium hosted by the Goethe-Zentrum Atlanta for his presentation on electric car charging stations and their influence on sustainability, which he presented in German.

More information on the AATG-Georgia Award is available on the AATG-Georgia website.

The German program in the School of Modern Languages offers a minor and three bachelor’s degrees with concentrations in German (Applied Languages and Intercultural Studies, Global Economics and Modern Languages, and International Affairs and Modern Languages), as well as two master’s degrees in Global Media and Cultures (jointly with the School of Literature, Media, and Communication) and Applied Languages and Intercultural Studies.

The School of Modern Languages is a unit of the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts.