Lashinky credits her German courses at Georgia Tech for giving her the confidence to pursue an undergraduate exchange at the Ludwig-Maximilians Universität in Munich, an experience that prepared her for her Fulbright assistantship. She is looking forward to opening up new opportunities to her students by helping them master the English language, and said of her German professors at Georgia Tech, “Their fostering a culture of acceptance of mistakes for the sake of learning was absolutely critical in the language-learning classroom, and I can only hope I can transfer their techniques, methods and effectiveness into my own language-learning classroom. I seek to be to the students what each of my German professors was for me: a memorable figure whose instruction ignites a passion for linguistic and cultural understanding.”

Lashinsky says she will be using German out of the classroom at every available opportunity, and she is excited “to increase my own understanding of the German language and people.” She is not sure what her future holds after she completes her Fulbright term, but whatever it is, she hopes it includes two of her passions: travel and the German language.