Thanks for the Opportunity!

Hello Everyone,

I am Tushar Batra, an Exchange student from India. I came to Germany on my first trip abroad, not knowing what Germany and Remagen are going to offer me. But then, I started working as an Intern at HS Koblenz, took up leadership roles in the Internship and made the most out of it. The working environment at the campus is something I would miss in my country. Here, there are strict rules related to work. So many times, I was caught working at 21.00 hrs, the security staff told me you shouldn’t be here right now. Work ends at 20.00 hrs. Oh my God, that was like totally unheard of for me! You slog late in the night but get the work done, be it weekdays or weekends, in my country. Here, weekdays are only 4 days Mon-Thu for WORK and weekends mean you TRAVEL.

Producing quality work is another habit of the Sprachen/Internationales Department - I learnt it from one of the colleagues at the Department. It takes time to develop flyers you see at the International Day: Barbara and I sat for over 6 meetings to improvise on them so that we could show it to the campus students on the D-Day. I can say now I learnt to me more patient and it paid off.

Does it mean German work environments are ideal as my learning environment? I wouldn’t deny. Moving on from work, I had a course in the University, International Business Simulations (IBS), which required us to simulate an Event Management Company that works on projects concerning Refugees. Guess what - I was appointed the CEO of the company. The company had students from over 6 nationalities - Spain, Jordan, Azerbaijan, Germany, India, Syria etc. Imagine, when you have to lead an Intercultural Team - you not only handle the company’s and customer’s goals but also intercultural conflicts and manage diverse teams and make sure all are working towards the same goal!

We conducted 2 big events with refugees, one on International Day and another on 10 June in Bonn. In both the events, we were able to meet our project goals, in fact exceeded them and ensured overwhelming response from the refugees for our 2 events! On a lighter note, when you are working so closely with and for refugees, they turn into your friends in Germany as well! One of the refugees from Pakistan, in fact, even decided to join the course IBS!

I know none of this would have been possible if I hadn’t fought hard to get my passport in time, VISA in time, a good letter of motivation and CV and most of all, my desire to feel and fully absorb the German culture. So yes, Germany for me now means much more than punctuality, clean roads, silence in the streets, 4 dustbins, birthdays where you don’t cut the cake in front of everyone and sing Happy Birthday song, beers at every party, sausages at every BBQ; Villages with VWs and BMWs of the world ,24*7 access to electricity and clean water supply, unpredictable weather, rules above individuals and rules are really respected, safe for each and every human being to live in, free education, reliable German public transport and most importantly, SEMESTER TICKET

Thanks for giving me the Opportunity to come here, RheinAhrCampus!