Digital International Week, RheinAhrCampus Remagen, 2 - 5 June 2020

International Day
03 June 2020

A Meeting of Friends:  More than 30 international workshops from seven different time zones and four continents made the first Digital International Week an experience to remember. Up to 40 participants joined each of these workshop and met with Albanian, American, Azerbaijani, Australian, Brazilian, Canadian, Georgian, Indian, Portuguese, Spanish, Singaporean and Turkish scholars and students in cyberspace. In addition, the German Academic Exchange Students and several partner associations were present to talk about scholarship and internship options. Intercultural topics and advice for study abroad projects were covered as well as current topics like Crisis Management in Singapore, Turkey and the United States.

All sessions were lively and interactive. Barbara Neukirchen, one of the event organisers, described her impression of the student responses: "Some students who joined this week's session had very specific questions as they had already applied for a place at one of our partner universities. Others were still undecided and joined several sessions in order to meet our partners". And Sarah Krajewski, the other main organiser, added: "This week showed that the spirit of international cooperation is stronger than any pandemic - this was very encouraging!"

Among the participants, there was a resounding echo of "Hallo, hello, hej, cia, bom dia, namaste…!“ when our exchange alumni, visiting students as well as visiting lecturers met again - or when former exchange students joined us again to share their nostalgic memories. Omar Sotillo Franco had called his talk "ERASMUS changed my life" - after meeting the love of his life during his exchange semester at RheinAhrCampus Remagen - which triggered a lot of emotional reactions from the international audience.

Dr. Borgmann, Head of Languages / International Affairs, had every reason to be happy about the success of the new format: "The great involvement of students and faculty members showed that there is a lot of enthusiasm about going abroad - and many are preparing for their study abroad semesters in 2021. Right now, they can benefit from especially attractive funding options if they go for it!" Contact us if you need any additional information! Read the full press Article (in German) here.