Erik Youngs, University Fellowships Coordinator, Chair
As a Minnesota native, Erik began his undergraduate studies at Minnesota State University, Mankato as a first-generation college student. There he triple-majored in Philosophy, German, and English Literature and was involved with the campus community as the president of the Philosophy Club and a German tutor. Erik participated in a Philosophy of the Arts study abroad course through Paris, France and Florence, Italy; and he was also an exchange student through the University of Kansas’s Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures Advanced Summer Language Institute. Erik was awarded two Fulbright Fellowships – one to Germany and another to Vienna, Austria – and ultimately chose the Fulbright to Germany. During his time as a Fulbright scholar in Germany, Erik assistant taught English at two schools: a German high school as well as a special private school for languages. Along with his teaching duties in Germany, Erik was enrolled in MA-level courses in the “Geschichte der Ethik” (History of Ethics) program at Erfurt University.
After wrapping up his Fulbright duties, Erik went on to receive an MA in Philosophy from the University of Chicago, and afterwards moved back to Minnesota to work as a Credit Curriculum Facilitator and also teach Advanced English for Concordia College’s Language Village program “Hometown USA.” Erik then went on to earn his MA in German Studies (German Intellectual History) at Stanford University. During his time at Stanford, Erik was hired by the Stanford Vice Provost Graduate Education Office to tutor English to incoming Stanford PhDs as a Language Orientation Tutor (LOT). He also volunteered as a German Conversation Course lecturer and as a lecturer in Philosophy for Stanford’s Splash! Program; and he also eventually became certified by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL). Then, for personal/family reasons, Erik moved back to Mankato and has been working, at times as an adjunct, at times as a full-time, fixed-term instructor, in the Philosophy Department (and occasionally the German Department) ever since. Along with his teaching duties, Erik has continued to develop himself professionally by, for example, earning a Faculty Teaching Certificate through the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, and recently becoming C-1 certified – the second-highest level of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) – by the Goethe-Institut in Frankfurt, Germany.
