On a humid, summer day in June, Claudia Bornholdt arrived at Coastal Carolina University for the first time officially as dean of the Edwards College. But this arrival was much different than her first visit in the winter. The temperatures were higher, campus was quiet, and she realized that Teal Nation is her new home. Bornholdt expressed her happiness to be back at the coast once more, a locale similar to where she grew up across the world in northern Germany, just north of Hamburg. While she is nostalgic of home, she has enjoyed the warmth on campus – and she’s not just talking about the climate.

“Everyone is just really warm,” she said, talking about her first impression of Coastal. “There’s a sense of community that exists here, and people are incredibly warm and welcome.”

Fast forward to present-day, Bornholdt is feeling settled into her new role as dean of the Edwards College of Humanities and Fine Arts. She comes to CCU from the Catholic University of America (CUA) in Washington, D.C., where she served as the acting dean of the School of Arts and Sciences, chair of the Department of Modern Languages, and Endowed Walburg Chair of German Language and Literature.

Before CUA, Bornholdt worked in the Midwest at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She earned her Ph.D. from Indiana University at Bloomington in Germanic languages and literatures, medieval studies, and historical linguistics, and a Masters of Arts in German from Bowling Green State University.

Melanie Smith, the editor of the Atheneum and University editor, spent time with Bornholdt getting to know her journey to Coastal, what she looks forward to achieving as dean, and how she likes spending her rare, but valued, free time. Grab a cup of tea and get to know Claudia Bornholdt.

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MS: Tell me a bit about where you’re from.

CB: I am from northern Germany, close to the coast. I feel I’ve come full circle now by being back by the water. I was a student at Christian-Albrechts Universität in Kiel, Germany, which is a city on the Baltic Sea. I enjoyed being a student on the coast, but it’s a different climate, much colder. Very cold water, no palm trees, but still a beautiful ocean! From there, I went to Bowling Green, Ohio, on an exchange program as a graduate student and I stayed here (in the U.S.) ever since.

MS: So, you never moved back to Germany?

CB: I’ve gone back to visit, but not back to live. I earned my M.A. at Bowling Green University in German, and I met my husband there, who also earned an M.A. in German. He’s from Iowa, but he’s a fluent German speaker as well. Then, I spent a lot of time in the Midwest. I attended Indiana University for my Ph.D., in Bloomington, Ind., then I got my first job at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

So that concludes my Midwestern state of my life.

Then 12 years ago, I went to Washington, D.C., to Catholic University of America, and now I’m here.

MS: What positions did you have at your previous institutions and how did they lead you here?

CB: When I came to the U.S., I was on a research fellowship. When I earned my Ph.D., I got a teaching assistant position that allowed me to teach German there. That’s how I began to teach language. My research is in literature, specifically medieval literature. But, teaching languages has always been a part of what I’ve done. In Illinois, I was an assistant professor teaching language and literature courses.

When I started at Catholic University, I was the only full-time faculty member in the German program. What I’ve done there is build up that program; it had very few majors and was fairly small, so I completed a variety of initiatives there to build the German program. I started a program in European studies, which was interdisciplinary with various departments collaborating from the social sciences and humanities.

Then, I became the chair of the Department of Modern Languages, continuing to build more programs. One thing I really like to do is build programs. We added more languages while I was there, including Arabic, Chinese and Irish language courses. We grew interdisciplinary programs; we worked on the European studies program; and added an Islamic studies program, an Asian studies program, an Irish studies program, and a Latin American and Latino studies program.

I was asked to become the acting dean of the School of Arts and Sciences for two years, then went back to being the department chair. Since I liked being a dean, I pursued the position here.

MS: What do you like most about being a dean?

CB: I like working with different departments in many ways, and getting to know all the faculty, staff and students involved. I enjoy the opportunity of bringing people out of their department perspectives, like I completed with the interdisciplinary program; the idea that we have a lot of shared ideas and that we can collaborate.

I like getting people together and thinking about how we’re all in the same college, reminding them that we are all in the same organizational structure. We figure out what it is that connects us. It’s great to create a sense of “we are a unit” and reminding everyone of our shared interests.

Also, as a dean you’re learning 100 new things a day. At Catholic University, I was dean of all of the science departments, so I learned a lot about the science programs. I oversaw the department of education as well. I enjoy the endless learning curve.

And now as dean of Edwards, I am back with what I’m familiar with!

MS: What would you say is your career highlight so far?

CB: Myy career highlight is unifying people behind a common cause. I did this in the languages department at Catholic University, uniting the individual language sections. When I was chair, we had a sense of being a full department. We were not just Spanish, and French, and Italian, and German, but we were actually a modern languages department. I did something similar as a dean, too, where we didn’t just have scientists and educators and theatre people, but we had a feeling of “we are all really a part of this college.” That’s what I’m most proud of.

I hope we get to do that this year as well.

MS: What are your goals as dean of Edwards and what are you looking forward to accomplishing?

CB: The feeling of creating an identity for the Edwards College and for everyone in the college is really important; a shared vision and how we plan to move forward. On that note, we started identity building by printing T-shirts for the incoming freshmen.

Otherwise, some of my goals are to make the college as inclusive as we can become, and to very much internationalize it. That’s where a lot of my expertise comes from, but I think it’s also important for the students to actually go out in the world, and to bring more international students here. To have more of a global view.

And really, I want to see the collaboration between faculty, students and programs. The centers and institutes we have are very hands-on, experiential and collaborative. I want to see those grow even more.

I come from a graduate institution, so I am really excited about our graduate programs. I want to see those grow and think of what else we can do in that area.

The last thing I really want to do is find alumni, donors and people who are interested in supporting what we do here, especially the arts. That’s another big goal; have much more people coming to campus to visit our performing arts, concerts, shows, plays and the art gallery. I wish I could build a bridge from Myrtle Beach directly to campus!

MS: What was your first impression of Coastal?

CB: Truly, my first impression of when I came to campus was how welcoming everyone was. Everyone is really warm, I guess it's southern hospitality!

Having been at many universities, Coastal is a very organized university. I like how the processes are very transparent. There is very professional staff working here, which is obvious. There is a pride in the institution, which is great.

MS: Where do you see areas where you can help make a positive impact here at Coastal?

CB: I think we can tell our story much better to the world. I think it’s very important to get the message out about all the great things that are happening. And not just to the public, but also to our own students. It is a regional university, but the work that’s being done here and the quality of the people here has global impact. I came to the Edwards College with a Guggenheim Fellow, and two Fulbright faculty members; that’s amazing. Those are the things we should tell the world.

I also think we should seek to bring more students, scholars and faculty from abroad to campus. We should find good ways and hopefully funding to send our students not just abroad, but also to other parts of the country for internships and other practical experiences. We could connect regionally, nationally and internationally. That’s an opportunity.

What we can do better as well is show much more of what our students do after they have graduated. They do amazing things. We should stay in touch and make space for the alumni students on the website.

MS: What is your dream vision for the Edwards College?

CB: I want to find somebody who will help us build an Edwards performing arts center! That’s the dream.

MS: Do you have any fun facts about how you spend your time outside of Coastal?

CB: I don’t play golf yet! I bought a house on a golf course and I don’t play golf. I love to travel. I told students at Orientation that the world has become incredibly small. I have a sister and 6-year-old nephew in Norway. My parents are in Germany. It feels like we're close with all the technology in the world now. I wish our students would embrace having a global mindset and think about the world, and go out there!

MS: Where is your favorite place you’ve ever traveled?

CB: That is a question I can’t ever answer. That’s impossible to answer because I did a whole year of travel while I was on sabbatical a few years ago. I think maybe Argentina. I fell in love with Bariloche in the Andes Mountains, a town that was founded by German immigrants. There is a lot of German architecture and beer there. It’s mainly beautiful with a lot of glacial lakes with gorgeous colors, really high mountains, beautiful hiking, volcanoes… it’s really amazing.

MS: Do you have any hobbies?

CB: I travel. I like to go hiking. I started going in the morning to run on the beach to see the sunrise. In D.C., I liked going to concerts, plays and art galleries. That’s why I’m excited with the cultural arts we offer. I like art and buying art pieces.

I don’t have any pets or any kids. I like to garden, so that’s something I really look forward to doing here. I had a small apartment in D.C., so it’s nice to have a yard again. I bought my first tomato plant so I look forward to growing herbs, tomatoes and peppers.

The other thing I haven’t given up is learning Spanish. When I did this yearlong trip, we went to Spain and South America, so I’m trying to not lose the little bit of Spanish I learned there. It’s fun being a language teacher and being able to learn different languages aside from what you teach.

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Dean Bornholdt embodies the saying, “If you are passionate about your work, you don’t work a day in your life.” She is looking forward to making her mark here at Coastal, while soaking in everything the Edwards College and University have to offer. Say hello to her in the Dean’s Office, Edwards 201A, and grant her a warm welcome to Teal Nation.