Patrick Ploschnitzki received his Abitur in 2006 and spent six months in the United States, traveling and getting to know the country he had been curious about for many years. After that, he served his Zivildienst at a youth hostel on Norderney, one of the German islands. This was followed by a job at the front desk of the same hostel for nine months before he started his studies of "Linguistics and Phonetics" and "English Studies" at the University of Cologne in 2008. In past two semesters, he has worked for the University of Rhode Island's German Section as an intern. Here, among other tasks, he taught a conversation class and supported German teachers in and outside of class and as a tutor.