Who will be "Student of the Year"?

Deutsches Studentenwerk (DSW) and Deutsche Hochschulverband (DHV- German Association of University Professors and Lecturers) honor student commitment.

Who will be "Student of the Year 2022"? For the eighth time, Deutsche Hochschulverband (DHV) and Deutsches Studentenwerk (DSW) are offering the award for student engagement, which they created together. The prize money amounts to €5,000 and is donated by Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft. DHV and DSW want to award the prize to a student or a team of students who show an outstanding commitment that goes beyond their academic achievements and should be innovative and as unique as possible. There is no restriction on the manner in which this has been accomplished. The prize is to be awarded, pandemic permitting, on 28 March 2023, at the "Gala of German Science" in Berlin.

"There are many among the 2.9 million students who are involved in government and society, politics and associations, but above all in an honorary and altruistic way beyond their studies," explained DHV President Professor Dr. Bernhard Kempen and DSW President Professor Dr. Rolf-Dieter Postlep. "DHV and DSW want to make this commitment more visible with the 'Student of the Year' award by giving publicity to a particularly positive example of student commitment."

Both award organizers are calling for nominations for the award by 31 December 2022. Interested parties can find more information in the announcement below.  

Previous award winners were:

• Medical student Christoph Lüdemann from the University of Witten/Herdecke, who provided help for self-help in Rwanda and Sierra Leone through the association "L'appel Deutschland," which he helped to establish (2016),
  The Spinelli Barracks Mannheim construction project, supported by 16 architecture students from the Technical University of Kaiserslautern, who worked with refugees to design, plan, and build a wooden pavilion on a former U.S. military barracks site, which now serves as a meeting place and retreat for the residents in the initial reception facility (2017),
• Medical student Philipp Humbsch from Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin in Frankfurt/Oder. He is the originator and driving force behind the "Jeder kann ein Held sein" initiative ("Everyone can be a hero"), which has been teaching first aid free of charge to elementary school students in structurally weak areas of Brandenburg in particular since 2016, thereby at the same time sensitizing them to further volunteer work in voluntary civil protection aid organizations (2018),
• Medical student Wiebke Gehm from the University of Rostock, leading member of the student initiative "Tommy nicht allein," ("TNA - Tommy Not Alone") in which students have been caring for needy patients in the Rostock Children's Hospital in their free time since 2015 (2019),
• Medical student Sagithjan Surendra from the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, who is the founder and driving force behind the "Aelius Förderwerk," which has been supporting children and young people from non-academic homes, often with a migrant background, on their educational path via a wide range of non-material support since 2017 (2020),
• The "TechAcademy," a 20-member group of students at Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main, who promote the digital skills of their fellow students from all departments and disciplines with free seminars (2021), and
• 15 students from the Catholic University of North Rhine-Westphalia (katho) from the Department of Social Work in Aachen, who unselfishly supported many of those affected with their disaster relief efforts during the flood in Stolberg (2022).

Deutscher Hochschulverband is the nationwide professional representation of academics in Germany with over 32,000 members. Deutsches Studentenwerk, as the association of the 57 student unions in Germany, represents their interests as well as the socio-political concerns of students.

You can also find this press release online.