Photo: UHH/Denstorf
29 May 2024, by Abt. 5
Photo: EUGLOH
It may have been rainy and grey outside, but the mood at the EUGLOH Local Student Board’s meeting on campus couldn’t have been brighter. Five students – both old and new members of Universität Hamburg’s EUGLOH Local Student Board – gathered recently to discuss their plans for spreading the word about EUGLOH, the European University Alliance for Global Health comprising nine universities.
The alliance offers all students, teachers, researchers and staff affiliated with EUGLOH partner universities, including Universität Hamburg, the opportunity to take part in a wide range of international exchange opportunities focusing on global health. These range from workshops and summer schools to conferences and short-term stays at partner institutions. The international offerings are diverse and numerous – but it’s also possible to get involved while on campus.
About twenty Universität Hamburg students are active members of the EUGLOH Local Student Board. Members are actively involved in student-led initiatives related to communication and student engagement in addition to being active members of EUGLOH project initiatives at the European level. The board also elects members to represent Hamburg students on the EUGLOH international student board.
“The opportunity to better understand how an EU-funded project works has been particularly interesting for me. I’ve gotten to know more about policy-making within the university and the alliance and have gained a better understanding of how a European project is organized,” says Lena Rüschpler, a third-year medical student and current vice president of the EUGLOH Local Student Board.
Board president Sinan Aydin, third-year medical student, agrees that being a member of the board has been a positive learning experience. “I was really interested in working on a European level and having the opportunity to meet people from different cultures and get their perspectives,” he says. “Personally, I think you learn a lot when it comes to organizing initiatives on an international level, especially when addressing challenges or hurdles.”
EUGLOH’s interdisciplinary understanding of global health reflects the realities of how many different factors can impact various aspects of health. “Global health is a holistic view,” says André Bembennek, bioinformatics master student. This approach also gives students the opportunity to network with fellow students and others outside of their specific academic field. “You can get input from other fields and that kind of network is everything,” says Jana Hey, biology PhD student, who acted as president of the Local Student Board over the previous year.
One such networking opportunity is coming up in mid-June in the form of the EUGLOH Annual Summit 2024 taking place in Szeged, Hungary. Six students from Universität Hamburg will be attending and will have the opportunity to meet representatives from other EUGLOH partner institutions.
In terms of networking on the Universität Hamburg campus, the Local Student Board is also currently preparing for the Campus-Fest coming up on June 26. Additional outreach activities are planned for the start of the new academic year.
