Andrea Kluge

Andrea Kluge, Sabhal Mòr Ostaig UHI student of the year

 

Andrea Kluge is originally from Germany, and she has been a student at SMO for five years where she has achieved full fluency in Gaelic as part of her course, and where she has been involved in a number of initiatives to promote the learning and use of Gaelic within the college, within the wider community and even overseas.

Over the past few years Andrea has been one of the principal advocates of the ‘Abair Thusa’ initiative, where students are given the chance to meet with people from the community to speak Gaelic in an informal setting. Andrea also proposed and then established ‘Café Ostaig’, a Gaelic café where people can come for a cup of tea and a bite to eat, and where they can expect a warm welcome and a chance to meet people from the college, people from the local community and visitors.

Dr Meg Bateman, one of Andrea’s lecturers on the BA (Hons) Gaelic and Development, said:  “Andrea is always reaching out to make connections between people, cultures and nature, and perhaps this is why no-one is better at recognising the worth of the language or encouraging its use.”

Andrea said: “I’ll be forever grateful for all the help I got over the years, but I guess I’ll be learning forever and therefore we’ll need more people from the community to come to Abair Thusa. There’ll be cake!”

 

 

 

Picture: Andrea Kluge, BA (Hons) Gaelic and Development, Sabhal Mòr Ostaig UHI