Faculty

Dr. Harald Menz began his career at Bethany in 1994, after teaching German at The Linsly School in Wheeling, W.Va. Additionally, he has taught German and English in Germany, Wales, Japan, and the People Republic of China.

He coordinates the Heidelberg-Bethany exchange program, which has had over 200 participants under his guidance, and the Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistants program. He advises Bethany German Club and regularly takes students on study trips to the German-speaking world.

He regularly presents academic papers at regional, national and international conferences.

He received the West Virginia Foreign Language Teacher of the Year Award for 2011-12, and was a finalist for the 2014 West Virginia Professor of the Year award. He has twice received an Appalachian College Association Faculty Fellowship to support his research.

He is a past president of the West Virginia Chapter of the American Association of German Teachers (AATG) and of the West Virginia Foreign Language Teachers‚Äô Association (WVFLTA). Since 2018, he serves as the Chief Reader for the College Board’s Advanced Placement German Language and Culture Exam, overseeing the scoring of over 5000 AP Exams annually, taken by high school students in the U.S. and around the world.

Dr. Menz’s interest in languages and cultures, and the desire to improve international understanding, was sparked in his early teenage years when I began traveling internationally with his older brothers.

Spending two years in Wales teaching German as a Foreign Language at the secondary level during his undergraduate years inspired him to make teaching his native tongue and culture part of his profession.

Education
Ph.D., West Virginia University (1987-1992)
M.A ., West Virginia University (1984-1986)
1. Staatsprfung fr das Lehramt an Realschulen (B.A. equivalent), P dagogische Hochschule (University of Education), Heidelberg, Germany (1980-1986)

Areas of Passion & Research
Environmental protection and preservation, the improvement of international and intercultural understanding, peace work, the arts, and the interdisciplinary study of almost everything.

Personal Interests
Music and visual arts, his 3 dogs, cooking (and eating), hiking and backpacking.

Favorite Quote, Book, or Movie … Why?
His current favorite movie is “Never Look Away” [Werk ohne Autor] (2018). It’s a movie about art, and how art comes about, as the director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck decribes it. That one of those topics that he knows will never leave him. The film also deals with Germany past and how the country and its people have decided to deal with it. Again, as a German, I am unable to let that topic go.

Fun Facts
Hosts occasional “Waffle Sundays,” where friends, students and alumni get together for brunch and conversation.
Hosts the annual faculty and staff Mardi Gras party.
Plays with a band called Harald & the Hott Pockettes.
Traveled from Beijing to Berlin by train.
His first car was a 1973 VW microbus.

Volunteer Work
Helps with work on the Bethany trails.
With The Hott Pockettes plays at various charity events.

Alumni Connections
Leighanna Frantz ’19, Michaela Ross ’18, Flynn Pollard, Catherine Papp, Maghan Philp, Gerhard Schultze, Erin Scrimger, and many others; many of the 200+ Heidelberg Exchange students and Fulbright FLTAs