Stephen J. Della Lana, M.A.T.

Senior Instructor of German

Address: JC Long 422
E-mail: dellalanas@cofc.edu


CV

Born in New Jersey with an undergraduate degree from Rutgers University, Mr. Della Lana’s association to CDS has been over 20 years in the making.  He was a participant in the prestigious Congress-Bundestag Exchange Program for Young Professionals (1989-1990)  by which he did two months of intensive German language training in Cologne, followed by a semester at the University in Erlangen and then a six month internship at a small, private language school and translation service in Nürnberg.  There, he taught Business English, coordinated the English language instructors and did translations for a wide variety of clients.  He was hired on full time and remained in Germany until 1994, when he returned to the U.S. to pursue other opportunities and a M.A.T. degree from the University of South Carolina.

Upon graduation from the University of South Carolina in 2000, he was hired by the Department of Classics, German, Italian, Japanese and Russian at the College of Charleston as a Visiting Instructor and then as an Instructor until he was promoted to rank of Senior Instructor in 2006. His specialty is Business German, which he teaches every other year.  He set up the only testing center in the state for the Goethe Institute’s battery of German proficiency examinations, serves as the faculty advisor of the German Club and, in his role as the coordinator for the Summer Internship Program in Germany, recruits, promotes and visits student participants.  Mr. Della Lana works closely with the School of International Business to make Business contacts from German companies in South Carolina, which has produced several internships for our students at the German American Chamber of Commerce, Weber AG,  Ifa Rotorion,  among several others.  Mr. Della Lana has written several book reviews in the field of Business German which appeared in the journal of the American Association of Teachers of German (AATG) Die Unterrichtspraxis.  He is the current president of the AATG South Carolina Chapter and represents the interests of South Carolina German teachers in other Foreign Language Teaching Associations, both on the state and national levels.

Mr. Della Lana was recently inducted into the College of Charleston’s Global Scholars program, he participated in the First Year Experience program, the Faculty Technology Institute as well as numerous professional development seminars and workshops through the years. He has a particular interest in the division and reunification of Germany, and helped organize a 20th anniversary commemoration of the fall of the Berlin wall, and has guest lectured on this topic.

Mr. Della Lana’s other area of interest is German-English Business translation, for which he earned a supplemental certification.  He has monitored students doing translation projects for Motley Rice LLC, worked as an independent auditor for BMW ‘s German language program in Spartanburg, and does translations when time permits.  He has twice taught an upper level special topics course “German Business Translation”, to which he invited guest speakers from various industries employed at German companies throughout the state to speak to students about unique translation issues.


Education

University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC
Master of Arts in Teaching German, summa cum laude

Congress-Bundestag Exchange Program for Young Professionals Scholarship
CDS International, New York, NY

  • Carl-Duisberg-Gesellschaft Sprachkolleg, Cologne, Germany
  • Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany
  • Internship at Lehrinstitut Frischmann, Nürnberg, Germany

Rutgers University, Rutgers College, New Brunswick, NJ
Bachelor of Arts in German cum laude
Major:  German           Minor: Political Science


Research Interests

German Language and Culture (all levels)

Business German


Honors and Awards

Global Scholar designation, August, 2009

Inductee, Kappa Delta Pi, Education Honor Society, 1998

Inductee, Delta Phi Alpha, German Language Honor Society, 1987


Publications

Review

Eismann, Volker, Wirtschaftskommunikation Deutsch, Langenscheidt, 2008 in: Die Unterrichtspraxis, Vol. 42. Spring 2010.

Galloway, Vicki, Christiane E. Keck and Allen G Wood, eds. Global Business Languages, Volume 11: Matters of Perspective in: Die Unterrichtspraxis, Vol. 40, No. 2, Fall 2007.