Arnold Schwarzenegger - GERMAN WORLD MAGAZINE

Photo: Photo: ZfA
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people who inspire
Elke Miller-Schweigert, California
How a happily married businesswoman and mother of two still found time to initiate the
first full-time German-English immersion school and the first German kindergarten in
Los Angeles.
W
henever I see Elke Miller-Schweigert, a native from Munich
who came to Los Angeles in 1989 to study International Sales
and Marketing, it always amazes me how calm and relaxed she is.
This is a miracle considering her super-busy schedule as a mother of
two daughters, 7 and 9, and the owner and founder of KiGaLa
Preschool and the founder and chairperson of the Goethe
International Charter School in Mar Vista. Elke also serves on several
boards of German-American organizations and still makes time for
friends and family. She also started a German community network
group, Deutsche Gemeinde LA (German Community LA), and
organizes events for families, children and women. Before venturing
into the field of German-American education five years ago, she was
director of finance of a governmental contracting company. However,
she and her American husband Philip Miller, an Emmy nominated
film editor from Philadelphia who also speaks German, always felt
very strongly about raising their two daughters bilingually. After
visiting the Albert Einstein Academy in San Diego, the first successful
German-English immersion school in Southern California, five years
ago, she decided to devote as much time as needed to the development
of a similar school for Los Angeles and an international preschool
offering German, Spanish and English. In 2006, she started
the journey with a German language program for small children in
Answers for “Test your German”:
1.A Er (refers to der Staat)
2.D der (gen., fem, sing. referring to die DDR)
3.B am (dat., masc., sing. contraction an + dem)
4.A wurde (sing. past tense of werden, to become)
5.C die (refers to Gruppe, which ends in –e and is fem.)
EDUCATIONe
Santa Monica which became the KiGaLa
International Preschool, a fully-licensed preschool
with its German, Spanish and
English language programs and continued
with the development of an elementary
school. The Goethe International Charter
School was approved by the LAUSD in July
2008 and opened its doors in September
2009 offering classes from K – 5. Today,
the Goethe International Charter School
teaches 258 students and has a long
waiting list. The school has just submitted
its application for Middle School in Elke enjoying her work at KiGaLa
November 2010 and is looking for a new building in order to be able
to expand. This is a wonderful success after five years of many
personal sacrifices and relentless work. “I am deeply grateful to my
husband,” she says in an interview with German World, “who
supported me 100% at all times and to the founding parents of the
Goethe International Charter School who dedicated all their personal
time during the founding phase in order to make our initiative
successful.” Elke’s initiatives are indeed successful and one can only
congratulate her on these accomplishments. - gw/ps
6.C dienten (served, verb needed in 2nd position)
7.A etwa (approximately)
8.B zwischen (between 1949 and 1961)
9.D Berliner (add –er to show a person from a city)
10.D Deutschlands
The opening of the Goethe International Charter School
in September 2009
11.A friedliche (peaceful, without armed
conflict)
12.D Wiedervereinigung (Reunification)
Winter 2010/11 www.german-world.com 37