Jon Olsen

Jon Berndt Olsen is dean of Waldsee (first half), the German Language Village. Berndt has been on staff at Concordia Language Villages for 24 years and was a villager at both the German and Norwegian Language Villages. He is fluent in German and has studied Norwegian and Russian.

Berndt received his bachelor's degree in German, Russian studies, and history from St. Olaf College, his master's degree in German and European studies from Georgetown University and his doctorate in German history from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

He has held fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Fulbright Commission, the Robert Bosch Foundation and the Social Science Research Council. Berndt has held teaching positions at Texas Tech University, The College of William and Mary, George Mason University and is currently an Assistant Professor of History at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, where he specializes in German History and Digital History.