On December 6, Professor Sabine Lang announced the winners of an exciting Op-Ed competition in the Euro 301 Class. Over the past weeks, the students had worked tirelessly to address the question “How has Merkel’s open doors policy affected Germany and migration?” The Op-Eds covered varying perspectives of Germany and Merkel’s “can do attitude”. The students analyzed this topic through varying lens’, including Ohm’s Law in physics, personal experience hosting refugees, and German history in accommodating refugees post WWII.
DeBusschere accepts her second place award.
The Op-Ed competition is held annually and sponsored by the German Embassy to the United States through the Germany in the Classroom Project. This year’s theme, “Germany Meets the U.S.”, focuses on the ever strengthening relationship between the two countries. Submissions this year were extremely well-done, making the competition particularly hard for judges.
“There were many of you that did so well, we’d like to give honorable mention to a few names,” Professor Sabine Lang said as she announced the eight finalists, to the anticipation of the class and audience:
Third place winner Ian Luo.
- Nick Briggs, “Circuits and Migrants: How Physical Laws Can Provide Insight into the Refugee Crisis“
- Grace DeBusschere, “Willkommenskultur for skeptics“
- Ian Luo, “Today Is No Different: In Defense of Angela Merkel and Pragmatism“
- Nicholas Jeffery, “Willkommen; why Angela Merkel must continue to welcome refugees into Germany”
- Christopher Addison, “Do or die”
- Hailey Vandeventer, “Welcome Culture”
- Meredith Dobson, “Refugee reparations”
- Nandina Babic, “Leaving oppression behind: East Germany’s role”
Out of these eight finalists, Professor Lang then announced the four prize winners. Ian Luo took the third place prize. Grace Debusschere took second place. Finally, Nick Briggs won the first prize. “We had to actually go to the physics department and ask about the complex and exciting metaphor you raised,” Professor Lang stated. “It was a really new way to frame conversations about migration and policy. Very well done!”