Regan Mies, CC '22, Discovers The Intersections Between German Studies And Creative Writing

Upper West Side NY

19 May, 2022

4:18 PM

Description

By Esther Sun, Columbia Daily Spectator • May 17, 2022, 11:20 PM Many students might feel intimidated pursuing a subject in a department with only two other majoring students in their class year. For Regan Mies, CC '22, however, this small department size speaks to the level of close-knit connection and deep engagement she has found while studying German at Columbia. "Our seminar has seven students," Mies wrote in a personal essay about her German senior seminar. "Each week, we read one part of 'Buddenbrooks,' Thomas Mann's Nobel Prize-winning generational saga about the downfall of a 19th-century German merchant family. … For all our academic discussion, we spend ample time gossiping about the characters' lives—outraged at unsuited marriages, hopeful at promising changes of fortune, and distraught at each unexpected death." Hailing from an area of Minnesota where many trace their roots back to Germany, Mies began studying the German language in high school. Upon entering college, though, she was still uncertain about what to major in and tried various classes in physics, political science, German, and comparative literature. Ultimately, she decided to major in political science while still pursuing her language studies out of a love for Columbia's German department. Excited by the literature she was studying in her courses, Mies was also drawn to the sense of community fostered by small, intimate class sizes and the relationships she developed with her professors—some of whom she has taken classes with multiple times. Though Mies' grandparents emigrated from Germany when they were children, no one in her family spoke German regularly by the time she was born. In light of this, studying German was a passion that Mies "didn't necessarily expect." Now, Mies' two younger brothers are also learning German—a connection that she sees as "kind of fun." The summer after her first year at Columbia, Mies further immersed herself in German language and culture by taking Art Humanities and Music Humanities in Berlin. This upcoming summer, after graduating from Columbia, she plans to return to Germany to take classes in the northern region of the country near the Baltic Sea. "I feel like I'm just opening up into an entire history and body of literature that I didn't know existed," Mies said. "[In some ways,] I feel connected to my own heritage, but I also feel inspired to seek out other countries' literature and other countries' histories and really open my mind to those broader experiences." Mies found another connection to German after taking a translation seminar this semester. There, she found the intersection between German studies and her passion for creative writing translating contemporary short stories she found in online German literary magazines. Her work in translation and German studies also played a role in the "bigger picture" of Mies' studies as a political science major, since her primary subfield within the major is international relations. After studying global politics and history, Mies was able to further inform her understanding of worldwide affairs with insights from her German studies, as well as fulfill her creative passions through studying contemporary literature and creative nonfiction. Looking ahead, she plans to return to New York City after the summer to continue working in publishing, an industry she has interned in since her junior year. Regarding her favorite memories of Columbia, Mies points to sitting on the campus lawns with her friends in between classes during the afternoons and grabbing coffee from Café East. She has also enjoyed participating in Columbia University Road Runners, going on long weekend runs to fun destinations downtown with the student group. "In the very beginning, I felt like I had my toe in so many different things, … but I had no idea how everything would fit," Mies said. "[But] I feel like there was a very natural process—like with every year, things just started to come together. It was like puzzle pieces. … Everything lined up in a really beautiful way." Staff writer Esther Sun can be contacted at [email protected]. Follow Spectator on Twitter @ColumbiaSpec. Founded in 1877, the Columbia Daily Spectator is the independent undergraduate newspaper of Columbia University, serving thousands of readers in Morningside Heights, West Harlem, and beyond. Read more at columbiaspectator.com and donate here.