By Elaine Smith
In 1991, Ontario Universities International (OUI) began its provincewide exchange program with the province of Baden-Württemberg in Germany and it has been going strong ever since. Just ask Agnes Poleszczuk, OUI’s exchange program co-ordinator, who was among the first group of Ontario students to attend the University of Konstanz in 1991 as an exchange student from York.
“The York program was supervised by [now-retired] Professor Mark Weber, who taught German and promoted the exchange to his students,” said Poleszczuk. I was a third-year political science and German major and thought it was a fantastic opportunity. I ended up at Konstanz, because the university is very strong in the social sciences.”
Poleszczuk attended Konstanz for a full academic year and it was “definitely life-changing,” she said.
It influenced her to continue her German language courses and to pursue a graduate degree in European studies after graduating from York.
“It was an exciting time in Europe after the collapse of the Communist Bloc and it was fascinating for a political science student to learn about the changes underway while studying in the heart of Europe,” she said.
After earning her master’s degree, she worked for a Taiwanese organization before joining OUI, where she has worked co-ordinating exchanges to France and Germany for 20 years.
“Obviously, exchanges do broaden your horizons and allow you to go a bit out of you comfort zone,” she said. “You meet new people with different ways of living and doing things and the unknown isn’t as scary afterward.”
Poleszczuk lived in residence while at Konstanz, a series of homes full of both German and exchange students who shared a kitchen.
“These were the days before cellphones and email, so getting to know local students very quickly and watching movies, sharing dinners and having parties with the students in our residences helped us adjust to the environment and avoid a sense of homesickness. It was good support,” she said.
“We weren’t in daily contact with our families, so we had to grow up very quickly. It was a very good life lesson.”
Johannes Dingler, a graduate of the University of Konstanz, came to study at York during the early years of the program.
I came from a rural small town in Germany and considered Konstanz the big city,” said Dingler, who was a political science student. “We had an American exchange student in our residence and it made me see that there was a real possibility to student abroad. I found York University to be the perfect choice.”
Participating in an exchange was also life-changing for Dingler.
“I learned what a big, multi-cultural city was all about and learned things I never would have learned in a political science class at Konstanz,” he said. “The exchange changed my personal perspective, as well as my academic perspective.”
In fact, his goals changed after his exchange year, and Dingler decided to study international political theory and environmental studies. He returned to York to do his master’s research because he discovered that “some academic fields are not considered in Germany. Dingler went on to work in both Africa and Asia afterward “because of York.” He later pursued a PhD in environmental studies and theory and conducted his thesis research at York. Today, he serves as director of the international office at the University of Konstanz, overseeing exchange programs and being in charge of the Ontario-Baden-Wuerttemberg program.
“We had such good support as exchange students at York,” Dingler said. “Mark Weber, the program co-ordinator, picked us up at the airport and took such good care of us. Right from the beginning, it was good to have support when we didn’t know the rules”.
“When I arrived, it was a culture shock for me. But then I met local people and Canadian students took me out to bars, concerts and ice hockey games, as you do. It made the experience really fascinating for me. Moreover, being in Canada was the first time I realized how German I was.”
Sabine Dreher, who teaches in the International Studies Department at Glendon College and serves as the exchange co-ordinator there, came to York University from Konstanz to study in 1992. She was specializing in international relations and was eager to learn from some of York’s renowned professors: Robert Cox and Stephen Gill.
“The blurb on the departmental website at York said, ‘We study power,’ and that’s what I wanted to do,” said Dreher. “I’m still doing it.
Dreher came with a group of other political science and administrative studies students from Konstanz and found they were even able to attend some master’s program classes, which were much more personal.
“The department made it easy for us,” Dreher said. “We could attend their weekly colloquium and department events and were given access to the master’s students’ lounge.”
Her understanding of power shifted while she studied at York, broadening her understanding to realize that in addition to state power, economic power had real influence. It led her to complete a master’s degree at York and do her PhD in international political economy; it’s a subject Dreher still teaches.