27.04.2009
"It took almost a year from my application to acceptance - but it was worth it"
Not many young people from Guatemala get the opportunity to come to Germany - thanks to DAAD and supportive parents I was lucky (Copyright: Baden-Württemberg International)
“It took almost a year from my application to acceptance – but it was worth it,” Ana Lidia Cabrera Aguirre from Guatemala is glad that she took the opportunity to come to
Mannheim University of Applied Sciences for a Master´s course in Biotechnology, awarded with a scholarship of the DAAD, the German Academic Exchange Service. She gained a diploma in biological chemistry in Guatemala in 2004, worked for a year and was offered a permanent position in her home country. But somehow she just knew that she wanted more. On the web page of the DAAD she found the perfect course for her needs and today – working on her PhD in Hamburg – she sometimes thinks of coming back to Baden-Württemberg. “Mannheim is a very nice place to study and work, not least because of its central location. It is easy to travel from here, the town is not too big and still offers all the opportunities of a city.”
On the other hand, Ana Cabrera says that she feels she has a responsibility to give something back to her home country which had educated her in the first place. “We have many tropical diseases in Guatemala and I really want to help improve the situation by working on diagnostics and treatment in a non-profit organization,” the 29 year old woman says.
When Ana came to Mannheim she found life very similar to life at home as she had also led a western lifestyle in Guatemala city. Which meant that Ana adapted very quickly, thanks also to the help of her study colleagues, coordinator and the people from the international office who took care of her needs and organized help where it was necessary. She enjoyed an interesting, safe and relatively stress-free life. One reason was that she had decided to take a course completely taught in English. “I took some German which is really helpful for everyday life, but it takes away a lot of pressure that the international courses in Mannheim are taught in English.
Of course, by and by, she did learn about differences – positive and negative. Today she very much appreciates German reliability and has learnt to cope with the time it takes Germans to make friends compared with people from Latin America.
The Biotechnology Master´s course at Mannheim University takes one and a half years to complete and regularly welcomes 25 to 30 young Bachelor or Diploma graduates from all over the world, up to 50 per cent of whom are German. In Ana’s class there were students from the US, Canada, England, India, Serbia, China and Bulgaria.
www.hs-mannheim.de/studium/Fb_B/biotechnologie.html
