Who will be "Student of the Year"?

Deutsches Studierendenwerk and Deutscher Hochschulverband honor student commitment

Bonn/Berlin, 24 October 2023: Who will be "Student of the Year 2024"? For the ninth time, Deutscher Hochschulverband (DHV) and Deutsche Studierendenwerk (DSW) are offering the Student Engagement Award, which they jointly established eight years ago. The prize money amounts to 5,000 euros and is donated by Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft. With this award, DHV and DSW want to honor the student or a team of students who show an outstanding commitment that goes beyond their academic achievements and should be innovative and, if possible, unique. There is no restriction on the manner in which this has been accomplished. The prize will be awarded on 25 March 2024, at " Gala der Deutschen Wissenschaft" in Berlin.

"There is a large number of students among the 2.9 million who, beyond their academic studies, are involved in voluntary work in government and society, politics and associations, and are committed to our community," explained DHV President Professor Dr. Dr. h.c. Lambert T. Koch and DSW President Professor Dr. Beate A. Schücking. "DHV and DSW want to make this commitment more visible with the 'Student of the Year' award by giving publicity to a particularly positive example of student commitment."

Both award organizers are calling for nominations for the award by 31 December 2023. Interested parties can find more information in the following announcement.

Previous awardees* were:

1. the medical student Christoph Lüdemann from the University of Witten/Herdecke, who provided help for self-help in Rwanda and Sierra Leone through the association "L'appel Deutschland", which he co-founded (2016),
2. the construction project Spinelli Barracks Mannheim, supported by 16 architecture students of the Technical University of Kaiserslautern, who together with refugees designed, planned and built a wooden pavilion on a former barracks site of the U.S. military, which now serves as a meeting place and retreat for the residents in the initial reception facility (2017),
3. medical student Philipp Humbsch from the Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin in Frankfurt/Oder. He is the originator and driving force behind the "Jeder kann ein Held sein" initiative, which has been teaching first aid free of charge to elementary school students in structurally weak areas of Brandenburg in particular since 2016, thereby at the same time sensitizing them to further voluntary involvement in voluntary civil protection aid organizations (2018).
4. medical student Wiebke Gehm from the University of Rostock, leading member of the student initiative "TNA - Tommy nicht alleine", in which students have been caring for needy patients in the Rostock Children's Hospital in their free time since 2015 (2019),
5. medical student Sagithjan Surendra from the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, who is the founder and driving force behind the "Aelius Förderwerk", which has been supporting children and young people from non-academic homes, often with a migration background, on their educational path via a broad range of idealistic support since 2017 (2020),
6. the "TechAcademy," a 20-member group of students at Goethe University Frankfurt am Main, which promotes the digital skills of its fellow students from all departments and disciplines with free seminars (2021),
7. 15 students from Katholischen Hochschule Nordrhein-Westfalen (katho) from the Department of Social Work in Aachen, who selflessly supported many affected people through their disaster relief work during the flood of the century in Stolberg (2022),
8. Seven students of different disciplines from Hanover, Berlin and Hamburg for founding and their outstanding commitment to the group "Hanover Helps e.V.". Immediately after the start of the Russian war of aggression on Ukraine, the student group started aid deliveries, collected donations, set up children's play areas in the reception halls at the Hanover exhibition center, and distributed hundreds of packed schoolbags to needy students in the Hanover region.
   
   

Contact person for the media at DHV:

Dr. Matthias Jaroch, Press Spokesman
Rheinallee 18-20 | 53173 Bonn, Germany
✆ 0228 90266-15
✉ jaroch@hochschulverband.de

This press release online