About Me

Hello! My name is Kendall Schank and I have a B.A in International Studies and minors in German, Professional Communication, and Technical Communication.

I chose my major after living a year abroad in Germany as an exchange student. In 2017, through Youth For Understanding‘s exchange organization, I received the Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange (CBYX) full-ride government scholarship. I got the opportunity to learn the German language and culture by living with a host family and attending a German high school. I served as a representative for German-American relations through the program and got my certification in Berlin at the close of my exchange while visiting Bundestag (Germany’s Parliament) and the U.S. Embassy. When I came home, my family also hosted a German exchange student during my senior year of high school. These experiences changed my life forever–I fell in love with meeting new people and learning about different cultures and languages.

When I got to Missouri Western State University, I was involved with the International Student Council on campus and was even able to represent Germany with one of our German students at the university’s 2019 International Fair. I have now met many international students and get to appreciate the variety of different cultures.  

While finishing up my studies, I volunteered for Youth for Understanding (YFU) where I conducted interviews with aspiring high school students from the United States that wish to go abroad. I helped determine whether these young people were fit to be exchange students. 

I experienced first-hand the extreme difficulties but also the extreme joys of confronting a different culture from my own. I now enjoy mentoring others who face struggles with adjusting to other ways of life and helping them make sense of things that may feel odd and unfamiliar to them. Though we may be different, we have a lot we can learn from each other, and we often realize we are not as different from one another as we may think. 

Outside of international relations, I have always been a creative person. On my Other Interests page, you can find my passion for photography. On my Portfolio page, you can find design work I have done for classes as well as for clients.