Sisters grad to intern in German parliament

Sam Orwig, a 2009 Sisters High School graduate, has been selected to serve as an intern in the German parliament (the Bundestag). He is a 2014 Magna Cum Laude graduate of the University of Oregon with a Bachelor of Arts degree in international studies and German, along with a minor in political science.

Germany is a second home to Orwig. He lived with a German family for a year after high school, where he studied as a fifth-year high school (gymnasium) student. This experience was the result of another Congressional Bundestag scholarship he earned before graduating from Sisters High School. German gymnasium schools are selective schools for academically promising youth and offer the highest quality of education.

"We were invited to meet with Susanna Harrison (an A.S.P.I.R.E. member and French teacher at Sisters High) to discuss Sam's application for the gymnasium program," explained Orwig's mother, Joan Scannell. "She was very encouraging, and he was so sure that he would be selected that he didn't file any college applications. We spent a few tense months waiting to hear if he were chosen."

While at the University of Oregon, Orwig spent another year studying at the University of Konstanz in Germany. He chose this university specifically to study with German students. Very few foreign students are enrolled there.

Orwig, the son of Joan and T.W. Scannell and Dennis Orwig, was raised in Sisters. His mother, Joan, was a force in the planning and development of The Little Cloverdale Preschool. According to her, he was independent by the age of 3, and expected to succeed at any goal he established.

"At the age of 3," she recalled, "he told another child at the Cloverdale school that he was 5. His confidence never faltered from that age."

The German parliament offers parliament internship to U.S. and Canadian university juniors and seniors. This highly competitive award is based on "outstanding academic records, personal integrity and sufficient knowledge of the German legislative process."

Interns are able to study legislative and administrative procedures of the Bundestag with assignment in a position appropriate to their college majors. They receive financial compensation while they serve.

The Emigre Memorial German Internship Program was developed in 1965 to help build a solid basis for relations between Germany and North America. The emphasis on social sciences and contemporary history is designed to encourage development of future generations of German experts. The program was created by German scholars and is supported by the German government.

While he waits to learn when his internship begins, Orwig has already applied for graduate school at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, where he plans to focus on global development after his tour in the Bundestag is completed.