Known around LHS as Frau W., Marissa's passion is teaching German.  She lived in Berlin with husband Hans and son Dietrich in 1998 for 4 months, not knowing one word of German.  She fell in love with this international city and decided to begin studying German at UNL.  She studied there for 1.5 years, decided to take the family back and study herself at an intense German language institute as well as at Humboldt Universität.  She completed 5 courses there, returned to finish her double major masters in German and Psychology.  Deciding on a course of study,  she decided to be the first to purse a double masteres in German and Foreign Language Pedagogy at UNL.  While studying, she worked at the Cookie Company as well as having a Teaching position in the UNL German department.  It was here that she fell in love with teaching.  She completed both masters degrees and accepted a part-time job at Lincoln High and Nebraska Wesleyan in 2004.  This is her 5th year here at LHS and she is currently the only German instructor for the International Baccalauereate Programme.