Melanie Mello

I am originally from Pforzheim and have been living in the USA since 2005, where I have been teaching German as a foreign language in various educational contexts for many years. My teaching experience ranges from secondary school (German 1 to AP and IB Language B SL/HL) to higher education, and Saturday/language schools. To give more learners access to the German language and culture, I founded the Arizona German Language School a couple of years ago. Here, children and adults alike learn German in person or online and also have the opportunity to experience the language outside the classroom, for example by participation in the German American Partnership Program (GAPP) or our community events.

In addition to my work as a teacher, I develop teaching materials and regularly work as an author, consultant, and presenter for various educational institutions and publishers. 

I am committed to being a German Educational Multiplier because I myself have benefited from exchanges with experienced German teachers for many years and enjoy passing on proven methodological and didactic approaches as well as my own teaching experiences. I see teaching as a lifelong learning process that thrives on networking and collegial exchange—especially for German teachers, who often work in isolation at their schools. This makes it all the more important to me to support my colleagues within the framework of this program and to strengthen their teaching practice.

For my commitment, I have been honored with the Outstanding Goethe-Institut / GAPP Coordinator Award (2025), Distinguished Alumna of the Humanities and Fine Arts at California State University, Chico (2023), and Teacher of the Year at the Southwest Conference on the Teaching of Languages (2019), among other awards.