Ekaterina Sporleder from Dobrush in Belarus is a teacher, translator, tourism graduate, graduate of the Master's degree course in Business Consulting, mother and, since 2017, winner of the DAAD prize, which our university was able to award for the 10th time this year.
The Belarusian graduate of the Harz University of Applied Sciences is involved in all areas of life. She not only supported Eastern European trainees with their integration, but also Russian-speaking parents at her six-year-old son's daycare center. She volunteered as an interpreter during a medical exchange between the Ameos Clinic in Halberstadt and the “Children of Chernobyl in the Halberstadt Region”.
During her studies, Ms. Sporleder impressed with her extremely high level of scientific competence, her working methods and her achievements. Despite the demanding task of combining motherhood and studies, the prizewinner had an excellent average grade.
In 2016, the prestigious prize went to a student who was studying business psychology in her 4th semester at Harz University of Applied Sciences.
Iraine Rio comes from the Philippine city of Tagum and already studied psychology in her home country. Ever since she was a child, her big dream was to gain a foothold in Germany.
She excelled at our university with above-average grades. The 26-year-old was an active member of the student initiative InterForum and supported other foreign students as part of the university's Buddy Program.
Business psychology graduate Thi Xuan Duyen NGÔ from the Vietnamese coastal city of Nha Trang was delighted to receive the DAAD prize in 2015. Before studying at the Harz University of Applied Sciences, the prizewinner had already studied German language and literature in Vietnam and at the same time completed training in organ playing at the music conservatory.
For Ms. Ngô, Germany was a place with many new opportunities and so she decided to study the demanding Business Psychology course at Harz University of Applied Sciences. She completed her studies with very good results.
During her time in Wernigerode, she volunteered in various projects and worked for the Diakonisches Werk, among others. The graduate felt like a mediator between cultures and passed on the insights she gained in Germany during her regular visits home.
In 2014, the prize was awarded to Ms. Natalia Alms. The graduate from Belarus had everything that makes a worthy prizewinner. She not only completed her degree in Tourism Management exceptionally quickly, but also with a very good average grade of 1.5. “On the side”, she also found the time to get involved in the parents' council at her son's school and to actively support her son's sports club in its work.
This year's awardee was Ms. Thi Ngoc An Tran from Long An in Vietnam.
The 32-year-old successfully completed her Bachelor's degree at Harz University of Applied Sciences. After graduating in Business Administration, she went on to study for a Master's degree in Business Consulting, also in Wernigerode. Both degrees were passed with top grades.
During her studies, Ms. Tran supported her Vietnamese fellow students with a great deal of personal commitment as they adjusted to everyday life in Germany. She was also heavily involved in the planning and implementation of the Vietnamese Cultural Days and the Lantern Festival in Wernigerode, thus helping to consolidate the first German-Vietnamese town twinning with the Vietnamese city of Hoi An.