Name: Mike Franken
Major/Minor: Global Studies and Communication Studies with a German minor
Hometown: Kansas City, Missouri
Year at UNL: Junior
Favorite book and why:
Game of Thrones Series: Very well written and detailed books about war and the struggle for power that involves diplomacy in a fictional, magical world that is hard to put down.
Favorite dish/food and why?
Fettuccine Alfredo. I simply just love pasta and Fettuccine Alfredo is by far my favorite.
Why Global Studies?
I have always been interested in International Politics and Global studies gives me the chance to learn about other cultures and their political systems by taking a wide array of classes. My favorite classes that I have taken have been the political science classes and history classes. They really put a lot of current events into perspective which makes it much easier and smoother to understand a lot of the International problems in the world.
Tell us about your study abroad/internship experience.
This past summer I went to Berlin as part of the Deutsche in Deutschland program. I was enrolled in an international language school where I was able to meet people from all over the world and make some very interesting connections with people from other cultures. The program was an intensive German language program where we took 4 hours of German instruction everyday. Learning German from German instructors in German, was a great way for my language skills to improve and I walked away from the program with the ability to speak German much better. It was a great way to advance my German education and helped my German learning accelerate like nothing comparable in Nebraska.
After the program I toured Europe for a month traveling to 12 different countries and making stops in historical cities like Prague, Amsterdam, Vienna, Rome, Venice, and Barcelona just to name a few.
What are you post-graduation plans?
My post gradation plans are still up in the air, but I am heavily considering the foreign service, but I am also interested in domestic politics so I am also considering working in a congressional office as some sort of policy director or Communications director.