Einblick in die Universität

Das Programm für die internationalen Studierenden bestand aus einem Intensivsprachkurs Deutsch, interkulturellen Trainings, thematischen Vorträgen und Projektarbeiten sowie Besichtigungen von Unternehmen (ESA, Eumetsat, Lufthansa, Merck, Opel). Zudem wurde ein Rahmenprogramm mit sozialen und kulturellen Veranstaltungen sowie Exkursionen angeboten.

Gerade Studierende aus dem englischsprachigen Ausland zeigen ein stetig wachsendes Interesse an internationalen Kurzzeitprogrammen. Dieser Trend ist insbesondere in englischsprachigen Hochschulsystemen wie USA, Kanada, Australien und Neuseeland feststellbar. Aber auch Studierende in Russland, China und Indien beginnen sich verstärkt für Kurzzeitprogramme, vor allem in Deutschland, zu interessieren. Im Gegenzug können Studierende der TU Darmstadt Austauschplätze an Universitäten im Ausland erhalten.

Finanziell unterstützt wurde das Programm von der Carlo und Karin Giersch-Stiftung, die sich auch für das kommende Jahr erneut engagiert. Denn derzeit laufen schon die Planungen für die nächste Summer School, wenn es wieder heißen wird: Willkommen in Deutschland, Willkommen an der TU Darmstadt.

Matthew:

My name is Matt and I am from the United States of America. My home state is New Hampshire and I study Civil Engineering and German at the University of Rhode Island. The summer School program at TU Darmstadt has been a positive experience and I am glad that I took the opportunity to see what the school is like.

I enjoyed that we were able to visit a variety of different engineering companies throughout the four weeks. I was surprised by how many interesting companies there are in Darmstadt and I think we were fortunate to be close to all of these incredible places. Along with learning about engineering, we were able to learn German in small classes. I appreciated that we were able to take German classes that were at our skill level whether we were beginners or at an intermediate level. We were able to use our German at our own comfort level throughout the city.

It has been a unique experience attending the Summer School and being surrounded by the German culture. I am glad that I spent these four weeks in this program and would recommend it to anyone who is interested in engineering and wants to learn more about TU Darmstadt or the German culture.

Tang:

My name is Tang Jian, I come from Tsinghua university, Beijing, China. I study construction management. I think the Summer School I took this year really gave me a meaningful experience. We took German classes, we visited companies and we learned some engineer lessons too.

What most impressed me was our battery design activity, which we did in a group with some of my other classmates. We worked out a plan of fail-safe battery design. We learned the German way of product design, how precise they are and how many things need to be considered during the procedure. Besides the Summer School classes, I also had a lot of travels in some other places in Germany like Munich, Neuschwanstein, and a weekend in Paris.

I went there to see the city, the architecture and the people. They surrounding cultures here are very different from the people in my home country and also different from my expectation. The four weeks here made me think a lot, practice a lot, and see a lot new things. I felt like this was my best summer vacation ever!

Jonathan:

My name is Jonathan and I'm from Fort Myers, Florida, in the United States and I'm studying Aerospace Engineering at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. I think the Summer School program was great, as were the tutors. Most of the company excursions were interesting and a lot of the engineering seminars and classes were pretty cool as well.

One of the engineering classes had us do testing with cars and we got to test features of a BMW i3 and a Mercedes S500. Those of us with driver's licenses could drive the i3 and I was one of them. I thought it was an awesome experience. Another thing I got to do at TU Darmstadt personally was to visit Dart Racing, the FSAE team for TU-Darmstadt.

I am part of the FSAE team at my university so visiting them was a valuable experience. The timing was interesting because they were, at the time, preparing for one of the largest races in Europe. What I'll be taking back home with me are some concepts within German Engineering to incorporate into my future work and the phenomenal experiences I've had here.

Manuel:

Hello! My name is Manuel and I am an Industrial Engineer student from Spain. I am currently studying at the Polytechnic University of Madrid. I decided to join the TU Darmstadt Summer School Program because it gave me the possibility to learn the German language.

German classes were really interesting, fun and at the same time useful; as I have improved my German level a lot throughout the course. At the same time, I know some of the most important companies like Opel, Merck and Lufthansa are based in Germany and wanted to know more about how they work. This program has also given me the opportunity to meet a lot of people from different cultures and different backgrounds.