IN-EAST graduates, family and friends, new students, returning BA students, IN-EAST staff and lecturers joined our graduation and welcome ceremony on October 26, 2018. At the event with the headline “Hello, Good-bye and Welcome Back!”, graduates and students shared their personal impressions and valuable insight with the audience.

Download of the Invitation Flyer

Musik und Hello!

Das Programm startete mit Musik: Lisa Bachmann, BA-Absolventin vom letzten Jahr, sang ihre selbst geschriebene inoffizielle Hymne an unserer Stadt: Duisburg – Du bist DU. Moderiert wurde die Veranstaltung von Dan Wichter (Referent des Geschäftsführers). Anschließend begrüßte Institutsdirektor Axel Klein alle Anwesenden, insbesondere die neuen BA-Erstsemester.

Welcome Back!

Alle BA-Studenten, die sich im Auslandsjahr in einer unserer Partner-Universitäten in China oder Japan befanden, waren aufgerufen, von sich bzw. ihrer Gruppe einen Film zu drehen und nach Duisburg zu schicken. Das Publikum kam in den Genuss, die beiden sehenswertesten dieser Videos aus Kobe und Wuhan anzusehen, alle anderen wurden anschließend als Zusammenschnitt gezeigt. Dazu wurden die Zurückgekehrten auf das rote Sofa auf der Bühne gebeten und von Lisa Bachmann zu ihren Eindrücken von ihrem Auslandsaufenthalt interviewt: Thomas Janzen, Mirco Marciniak, Maximilian Petersen und Oliver Schulz berichteten aus Kobe, Isabell Gallda und Ebru Can erzählten von Wuhan.

Hello!

Helmut Demes, Managing Director of IN-EAST, welcomed the new MA students which came from 14 different countries for their studies to our institute. He recollected the still valid dictum of the founder of Sapporo Agricultural College, now Hokkaido University, William Clark, “Boys, be ambitious!” [Girls as well, of course].

Three MA students, Miquel Salvadó Gracia, Julia Pallanch, and Angelica Vidal, had participated as a team in the Youth International Competition on Global Governance (YICGG), organized by Fudan University, Shanghai during July 2018 where they discussed proposals for innovative solutions to the current most urgent transnational issues with many other students from all over the world. They talked about the great experiences they got at this international meeting and encouraged the audience to apply for one of the competitions in the next years. And – by the way – they won the Award for Best Performance presenting their first-stage project Implementing Green Development. Km China: Towards the Rural Revitalisation of China.

Dirk Petzold, chair of the alumni association AlFreDO e.V., introduced the AlFreDO Best Thesis Award which is presented every year to one or more students with the most convincing theses. This year it came unfortunately as non-monetary prize, that’s why he desired that more graduates might join the alumni association to be enabled to support good students with scholarships and endowed prizes. His motto of this year’s event for the IN-EAST students was “You can work everywhere!”

The best thesis award winners of 2018 were:
–  Daniel Dabrowski (Supervisor Prof. Shuanping Dai),
–  Sophia Schwager (Supervisors Prof. Tao Liu and Kei Takata),
–  Yawen Wang (absent) (Supervisor Prof. Markus Taube),
their certificate was presented to them on the stage.

Good-bye! and Music

Dan Wichter and Melanie Kogler (MA programs coordinator) led through the actual graduation ceremony. Each graduate student entered the stage and received his Bachelor or Master certificate.
Click here for the bachelor graduates’ photos
Click here for the master graduates’ photos

At the end all graduates and also some of the seven PhD scholars who completed their dissertations this year assembled on the stage for a group photo, standing still as well as throwing their mortarboards.

The traditional Graduation Speech was held by Zi Wang, PhD.

As closing point, Lisa Bachmann returned to stage with her song Good-bye IN-EAST.