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MUDEC Méinden Summer 2022 #5
MUDEC Méinden Summer 2022 #5
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MUDEC Méinden-Bi-weekly news from the MUDEC community for the MUDEC community-#lifelongMUDEC

Summer 2022 #5

July 18, 2022

Thoughts on the End of the Academic Year
by Raymond Manes, Executive Director, MUDEC

Raymond Manes
The Fourth of July is a very special moment at MUDEC: not only is it the American Independence Day and a reason for us to celebrate with a traditional American barbeque, but it also traditionally ends the academic year and invites us to retrospection and forecasting.
At a time when others considered relaunching their international programs after two years of a pandemic that entirely shut down education abroad across the world, a tiny place in the heart of Europe, changed gear and went sky-high to welcome 326 students to the Miami University Center in Luxembourg. What a magic number!
Students enjoy the July 4th celebration at the Chateau Raymond Manes welcomes to the chateau A balcony at the chateau decorated with American flags
Left to right: students and staff celebrate the 4th of July; welcoming Mayor Christiane 
Brassel-Rausch and Deputy Mayor Tom Ulveling to our 4th of July BBQ; a view from the Château balcony
The success of this past year could not have happened without the support and assistance of so many people.
What would this program be without the tremendous trust and support of the Miami University’s administration including President Crawford and Provost Jason Osborne? Keeping the MUDEC program moving forward and in person meant a lot to the Luxembourg people and supporters.
What would this program be without Cheryl Young and her team in Global Initiatives, Ryan Dye in Education Abroad, and Kimberly Miller, the MUDEC Assistant Director in Oxford, who unfailingly defend our colours on the other side of the ocean? It is just wonderful to see how the relationships quickly built up between the staff here and there.
What would this program be without my team here, faculty and staff dedicated day and night to the well-being of our students? In Fall, we will be missing one of us: after one and half years of great service to our students, our Student Activities Coordinator (SAC), Daniel Riecker, has left us to return to the United States to start his professional career. Daniel was dedicated to serve our students and made everything possible to keep the students informed about was going on in terms of traveling in a pandemic. We jokingly called him "COVISAC", as he will enter the history of MUDEC as the Student Activities Coordinator who served during a pandemic and a war in Europe. Not an easy job, but a job wonderfully done! All the best for your future, Daniel!
What would this program be without you all who support us, here in Luxembourg as well as in the U.S.? We are proud to have an Alumni Board that counts among the most active in the entire Miami community and a Luxembourg branch that helps whenever needed. Our host family community gives so much to our students and the City of Differdange has welcomed us for 25 years.
MUDEC group at Arbed Group visiting Luxembourg Learning Centre At EIDE with Dean Jason Lane
Left to right: visiting Aciéries Réunies de Burbach-Eich-Dudelange (ARBED) steel plant; group at Luxembourg Learning Centre; with Dean Jason Lane at International School of Differdange and Esch-sur-Alzette (EIDE)
The Mayor of Oxford Bill Snavely, his wife Kay Snavely and the Oxford City Manager Douglas Elliott visited during the festivities of Luxembourg’s National Day in June, celebrating with four other sister-cities of Differdange. Over this past summer, four Miami University Deans and a Vice President visited the Center, and all of them agreed that MUDEC and Luxembourg have a lot to offer Miami University students, faculty, and staff. This opens totally new perspectives for MUDEC to allow even more students to take advantage of a opportunities in Luxembourg to study, research, or intern.
We are very proud and thankful to have been mentioned in various recent university-wide messages: President Crawford commented on the MUDEC achievements in his latest address, and Zeb Baker, Director of the Miami Honors College mentioned the study abroad program that we do now in Luxembourg with them in winter term and in summer session.
And who had this absolutely magnificent idea to hire Stephanie Shaheen? Differdange definitely rocks for the moment with Gerard Zens and Elisabeth DaSilva at the international school (EIDE), Christiane Brassel-Rausch and Tom Ulveling at the Differdange City Hall, and Stephanie and myself here at MUDEC being excellent teams.
In this spirit, we look forward to another great academic year with very likely even more students to arrive in Luxembourg, and many reasons to celebrate. In October 2022, we will celebrate 25 years of presence in Differdange and look forward to the next big event in October 2023the 55th anniversary of the Miami University program in Luxembourg! And the next Fourth of July will be coming soon, so we continue to have lots of occasions to celebrate MUDEC, its students, its faculty, its staff, its alumni, its host parents, its friends and... 
There is so much more to say, but simply let me say to all of you...THANK YOU!

The newsletter will resume publication in August with the arrival of our new students.

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