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Board Members 2011-2012
Committees
Important work could not take place without the many committees and the hard working parents and other volunteers who take leadership roles within these committees. Please inquire about current and newly forming committees.
Board Member Bios
 I am an Electrical Engineer and work as an Assistant Professor at the Center for Magnetic Resonance Research at the University of Minnesota. I am a native
of Germany, born and raised in the Eifel region near Cologne.
I met my wife, who is American, during my graduate work here in the Minnesota. We
are raising our children bilingual and attempt to instill in them a deep appreciation for cultures and countries around the world. Our family has been part of TCGIS from the founding days of the school and we had the great pleasure to witness our children thrive in the TCGIS language immersion environment with a distinct international perspective. As a parent of a child
that is now entering middle school I have an immediate and very personal commitment to ensure that the core mission of our school, to provide our children with a challenging, multilingual, internationally oriented curriculum both in
the Arts as well as the Sciences, continues to get strong support and
is implemented. I will attempt to help support this by serving as the Grant and External Relations Committee Chair.
 I am an ordained Unitarian Universalist minister, currently serving a
congregation in Mankato, MN. My family has been an active part of
TCGIS for the past four years, as we have watched our two sons grow
and thrive and receive the amazing gift of an immersion education. We
have supported the school in a variety of ways: hosting teaching
interns from Germany, PTO activities and committees, the technology
committee, and others. We have felt the strength of the school's
educational commitment and supportive, international community.
Currently I serve as the chair of the Board during this exciting and
critical time for the school, as it grows into a full Middle School,
establishes a cohesive staff and curriculum, examines long-range
facilities planning, and builds community with an ever-growing circle
of students and families. On behalf of all of the students, staff, and
families of TCGIS, the Board works hard to further the mission of our
school and to build for a vibrant, sustainable future.
 I have been a teacher at the Twin Cities German Immersion School since 2006. I was born and raised in Stuttgart, Germany. My unique background allows me to have a multifaceted perspective. I spent most of my professional life in various start-up type environments ranging from teaching to business. As a result, I had to reinvent myself numerous times. As a member of the Board, I would be able to utilize my diverse teaching experiences (in immersion and non-immersion settings) to help shape the direction of the school and represent the teachers’ point of view. I want to grow my body of knowledge about the inner workings of the school, increase my understanding of the curriculum implemented at various grade levels and participate in the decision making process.
I enjoy being a teacher at the Twin Cities German Immersion School because it is a dynamic professional environment which encourages active involvement by both staff and community as an essential driving force.
If there is one theme that has motivated me throughout my life, it is education. I honestly believe that there is no greater cause than the education of children! I am passionate about everything I do. Over the last three years I have discovered that I am in good company in this respect. I have never seen people more committed to the education of children than the parents and teachers at TCGIS. What an interesting, talented, hardworking pool of people! It would be an honor to be invested in a community which took the risk to create something new and unique in the educational system of Minnesota.
Being a part of a bicultural family, I am committed to the mission of TCGIS and believe the school and its community are truly special. My husband is German and my family lived in Germany for 4 years before moving to St. Paul in 2008. Before becoming a full time mom, my profession was in city planning. I worked for several local governments, mostly in Colorado. My professional project management experience includes working with interdisciplinary technical teams, the community, and elected officials using communication, problem solving, negotiation, and facilitation skills. This experience has translated well to the work I do as a TCGIS Board Director. I received a BA in Law and Society at UC Santa Barbara and received a MS in Community and Regional Planning at UT Austin. While in Germany I served on the board of the kindergarten my children attended and was involved with fundraising, budgeting, teacher hiring, program planning, volunteer recruitment, special event planning, and the development of admission policies. My two sons are currently attending and thriving at TCGIS.
I am the Controller for DS&B, Ltd, a Minneapolis public accounting firm. My 12+ years of experience in managing finance, human resources, information technology and administration in both corporate and school environments has given me the knowledge and experience necessary to positively influence the daily operations and strategic vision of TCGIS. I feel I would be an asset to the amazing team of people who are currently on the Board, and I look forward to the opportunity to serve.
I met my German husband in my hometown of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. In May of 2009 after 10 years in the Boston area, we relocated to St Paul. Our son began Kindergarten in the fall of 2009, and our welcome into the TCGIS community has been an essential and wonderful part of settling in and making this our home. In an effort to give back to the TCGIS community, and to be a part of ensuring its future success, I am honored to join the team of Board members supporting the school.
Born and raised in Robbinsdale, MN, Ms Ratwik has lived most of her adult life in St. Paul, not far from TCGIS. She worked in Germany as a youth worker and later as a bilingual secretary before returning home and graduating from the University of Minnesota with a degree in German education. She is retired from the St. Paul Public Schools. She taught German at Ramsey Junior High for 18 years, including 12 years also teaching the class for “At-Risk” students. Other responsibilities at Ramsey included being the Site Staff Development Coordinator for the Professional Improvement Plans for the teaching staff when the District initiated that program. After leaving the classroom, Ms Ratwik founded and directed Minnesota New Visions in Action, which became the statewide advocacy organization for world languages. Ms. Ratwik became the chief lobbyist to the Minnesota Legislature on behalf of world languages, and continues to follow legislation impacting world languages on the state and national level. Ms Ratwik is a member of the American Association of Teachers of German (AATG) and American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL), and has been on the boards of their Minnesota chapters, (MnAATG and MCTLC) for many years. She currently Co-Chairs the Alle Lernen Deutsch Committee of the AATG. From 1990 to the present she has presented yearly at the state MCTLC conference and almost yearly since 1994 at the national ACTFL conference on the topics of meeting the needs of all students, recruiting and retaining students of color, and advocacy. She has written many articles for the professional journals of the various organizations. In 2000 Ms Ratwik was the Minnesota AATG German Teacher of the Year. She received the Emma Birkmaier Award in 2004 and in 2007 the Pro-Lingua Award from the MCTLC. She was the Minnesota (MCTLC) nominee in 2005 to the regional Central States Council competition for the ACTFL National World Language Teacher of the Year. Ms. Ratwik and her husband have raised three children in St. Paul. Her husband and children all graduated from Central High School, St. Paul. She was a very active parent volunteer in the St. Paul Schools when her children were in attendance there.
After living and teaching In Austria for 3 years, I have returned to Saint Paul with my family and am happy to be a part of the TCGIS community. I have extensive experience in curriculum development and immersion language teaching practices. I have an MA in Applied Linguistics and have a specialty in Library Science. As a TCGIS board
member, I am excited to serve as an asset to the school and parents, but I also hope to connect the school with institutions and opportunities from the local community or even abroad in Europe. My years as an administrator and marketing associate for the German program at a language immersion organization has also made me keenly
aware of the issues involved in budgeting and finance for educational programming. I have worked with staff to save both time and money by using technology to share and communicate with one another about their lessons, their students and their own career development. I am happy to bring a unique, outside perspective to the TCGIS.
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