This supports social commitment beyond the study programme.
Happy scholarship holders: The German scholarship holders of Hannover Medical School (MHH) for the academic year 2023/24 with their sponsors. Copyright: Annika Morchner / MHH
They not only achieve outstanding academic results, but are also committed to society in a special way: yesterday, a total of 28 students at Hannover Medical School (MHH) received their certificates for the Deutschlandstipendium scholarship for the 2023/24 academic year. The scholarship holders met with their sponsors and the programme managers at the MHH to celebrate the Germany Scholarships. With the Deutschlandstipendium, students receive financial support of 300 euros per month for one year, half of which is financed by a sponsor and half by the federal government. This is intended to enable them to continue their social commitment alongside their studies and to take on responsibility for others. Special personal circumstances are also taken into account.
Scholarship not only for human medicine
One of them is medical student Jan-Niklas Ricke. He has received the Deutschlandstipendium for the fourth time and has been delighted each time: "It gives me the opportunity and freedom not only to concentrate on my studies, but also to do voluntary work," he emphasised in his speech, in which he thanked the sponsors for their financial and moral support on behalf of all MHH scholarship holders. Luisa Huwe is also one of the recipients. She is studying Public Health in her fourth semester and is a good example of the fact that the Deutschlandstipendium is not only awarded in human medicine, but also in other MHH degree programmes. She successfully applied for the scholarship programme in 2023 and impressed the selection committee not only with her good grades but above all with her commitment to organ transplant patients. Together with her father, she heads the Lower Saxony regional group of the Federal Association of Organ Transplant Patients. She organises regular meetings and is the contact person for transplant patients, people waiting for transplants and relatives. In this voluntary work, she also draws on her own experience time and again, as the 32-year-old has been living with a donor heart herself since 2019. "Alongside my studies, I work part-time in occupational health management at the MHH. Without the scholarship, I would have to increase my hours and I would have less time to study and do voluntary work."
Sponsors of the Deutschlandstipendium at the MHH this academic year include the Förderstiftung MHH plus, which made 14 scholarships possible through private donations, the Gesellschaft der Freunde with two scholarships, the apoBank Foundation and the Marburger Bund Niedersachsen as well as MHH professors Johann Bauersachs, Rainer Blasczyk, Martina de Zwaan, Ingo Just, Thomas Lenarz, Thomas Schulz, Frank Wacker and the couple Cornelia and Professor Michael Manns and Jörg Möller, who is a patient at the MHH. In 2019, MHH doctors gave him a new lease of life with a transplant. This prompted him to get involved at the university and give something of this gift back. Jörg Möller has been supporting the Deutschlandstipendium scholarship for four years: "We need good doctors who are also committed to society. This is important to me and the Deutschlandstipendium is a good way of supporting this."
The MHH relies on the support of sponsors to enable as many students as possible to receive a Deutschlandstipendium. Further information on promoting young talent (in German): https://www.mhh.de/deutschlandstipendium-foerdern
Text: Bettina Dunker