The evening was hosted by HU alumna Pavlina Popova. She is a prime example of how a Deutschlandstipendium scholarship benefits everyone involved. Popova received the scholarship while studying economics at the HU - she was sponsored by the Rotary Club. She is now a member of the club herself and supports students.
The HU is awarding the Deutschlandstipendium scholarship for the 14th time. It supports students with 300 euros per month - for at least two semesters. Half of the funding is provided by federal funds and half by private sponsors. In her welcoming speech, the President gave a pleasing summary: "Since the programme was introduced, a total of 1,217 scholarship holders have been supported at HU. The funding amount to date is around 4.4 million euros - 2.2 million of which comes from private funds." The Deutschlandstipendium stands for diversity: of the 99 scholarship holders in this funding year, 61 are women, 31 men and one diverse person. The youngest scholarship holder is 19 years old, the oldest is 47 years old. Diversity is also reflected in the subject areas of the scholarship holders: the scholarship holders are studying in 33 subject areas at seven HU faculties. The majority of the scholarships, 14, went to future law students.
"HU speciality": the themed classes
Once again this year, 15 scholarship holders are taking part in a themed class made up of students from various disciplines. This "HU speciality" enables students to learn about topics relating to "sustainability and global justice" and to conduct independent research at an early stage. Tobias Krüger, Professor of Hydrology and Society and Director of the IRI THESys at HU, and his team are providing scientific support and organising the themed class. This themed class is funded by the Humboldt-Universit?t Foundation. The latter is one of the long-standing supporters of the Deutschlandstipendium, as are artop GmbH, the non-profit Silberschlag Foundation, the Adlershof-based company PicoQuant and the Humboldt-Universit?t Economics Society.
The 29 sponsors of the Deutschlandstipendium include 17 companies, nine foundations, clubs, associations and three private individuals. Among them is Patrick Hostert, Professor of Remote Sensing at the Department of Geography at HU, who has been supporting and mentoring students from his department since 2019. The President warmly thanked all sponsors as well as all those involved in the organisation, support and networking of the funding partnerships.
Utilising contacts
In his keynote speech, HU ancient historian Dr Christopher Degelmann took a look into the past and used the example of the Roman Empire to explain the relationship between patronus and cliens - in other words, between patron and client. This relationship was characterised by mutual obligations and not just a one-sided dependency. With this in mind, the President also encouraged the scholarship holders to keep in touch and "make use of the experience and valuable contacts with the supervisors in the programmes and with the sponsors".
Author: Ljiljana Nikolic