After graduation Harrison Todd, a German and international business double major, is moving to Greenville, South Carolina, for a job with BMW. Working at BMW covers everything Todd wants in a career, and he got it through focus and taking advantage of opportunities.
Todd developed a passion for German after four years of studying the language in high school. He applied to the College of Charleston because of its strong German program and was hooked when he visited on accepted student weekend.
“Dr. Morgan Koerner is part of the reason why I came to the College,” says the Honors College student of the chair of the Department of German and Russian Studies. “He shared how the German program would take my language to the next level. I also met Professor Lancie Affonso ’96 of the Honors College who demonstrated an amazing passion for teaching and concern for students.”
His freshman year, Todd took two 300 level German-business courses, which are held exclusively in German. Because of his strong language skills, he was able to study abroad in Berlin the second semester of his sophomore year in the spring 2020. His trip, however, was cut short because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I feel fortunate that I got to spend three months in Berlin before I had to return home to Atlanta,” says Todd. “At least I got to connect with students and my amazing host family. Many of my classmates didn’t have the opportunity to study abroad at all. Plus, I experienced something few others did — being abroad during a pandemic outbreak.”
Todd finished his Berlin semester online at home only to continue with CofC online.
“COVID led to many things becoming scrambled,” says Todd, whose entire junior year was online and then his senior year was back on campus. “The pandemic sped up the process of being in college. We really didn’t get to take advantage of the full CofC experience; we had to take advantage of what we could. I’m just grateful to my professors for being flexible and engaged throughout it all.”
As an international business major, Todd regularly contacted Mercedes Benz Vans about internships. He applied for some technology-related internships and his perseverance was finally rewarded in August 2021 with a two-semester internship at Mercedes in the human resources department.
To read more about Harrison Todd’s future plans, check out the complete article by Darcie Goodwin in The College Today.
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