Today we had our final presentations. It was a culmination of all of our preparation leading up to the trip and our experiences from the past ten days. My group focused on Audi, and we spent the morning finalizing our slides and practicing our lines. Before presentations began, my group decided to eat lunch at the university mensa one last time. This time around, I felt less stressed about the food options and was able to pick out a delicious meal.
We began our presentations shortly after, and I was relieved to find out that my group presented first. A 25 minute presentation sounds long, but in the moment, it flew by. I presented the acronym CASE, which stands for Connected, Autonomous, Shared, and Electric regarding automobiles. I also wrapped our presentation up with a short summary. Looking back, I did not expect to know as much about the automotive industry and manufacturing process as I do now. I am grateful to add this knowledge to my resume, and pull from these experiences in the future.
Once my group finished presenting, we listened to the industry analyses of other companies. I was most interested in the BMW presentation, since they are the most comparable to Audi. It always shocks me how much of an impact German automotive brands had on the history of Germany and the world. Even though the industry is ever-evolving, each company does an excellent job of preserving their past while looking into the future. After each group presented, we all had a sigh of relief. Something that I will remember forever is how well the German students presented. English is not their first language, but they handle major presentations in English with ease. I cannot imagine how hard was to comprehend Dr. Feick’s challenging questions in the Q&A portion, let alone speak in another language.
We ended the day with dinner at Ratskeller Augsburg. On our walk there, Ellie and I spotted locals sitting on the bare floor. I had never seen something like this in the United States, and it highlighted how clean this environment is for its residents. I also noticed minimal to no trash on the ground, even with no trash cans in sight. Why can’t we keep America this clean, even with more trash cans available?
After being impressed by the cleanliness of the city, I ordered my meal. I ate a dish with turkey, mushrooms, and spaetzle, which might have been my favorite German dish of the entire trip. It felt bittersweet to end the program the same way it started: dinner with both the American and German students. After dinner, we all walked to a gelato shop and soaked in our last moments together. We talked about future plans and exchanged contact information in case we ever crossed paths again. I felt grateful that this group of students welcomed us with open arms and chose to spend time with us outside of the programmed activities. These are the bonds I will never forget.
