The main thing is technology!

The three-part video series “hier_angekommen” from the Public Relations Office features students who have made Upper Lusatia their home after leaving their home regions behind to pursue their studies. The series kicked off in November with Nino Gehler, an ecology and environmental protection student from Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.

Now it’s Johanna Schubert’s turn in the second part, titled “A Franconian Woman Amid Plastics, Children, and Structures,” where she shares her enthusiasm for her university and her current employer, the Fraunhofer Institute for Machine Tools and Forming Technology, and in doing so makes it very clear that, as a woman in a male-dominated field, it is good to balance children and a career with studies and daily work life.

Johanna Schubert initially studied Mechanical Engineering at the Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences in the KIA diplom degree course. She used her parental leave with her young daughter to immediately follow up with a master’s degree specializing in design. “I’ve always wanted to work in Mechanical Engineering or technology,” recalls the native of Upper Franconia, who first held a soldering iron in her hand at the age of six. Her training partner in the KIA degree programme eventually led her to Zittau. “What was good about the dual degree program was the balance between theory and practice—achieved through the combination of apprenticeship and academic study,” says the graduate engineer (FH).

Rough surfaces, precise dimensions, and 3-D coordinate measuring systems have been her world ever since. In the video, she explains how she managed to balance her studies with starting a family, what her day-to-day work is like as a research assistant at the Fraunhofer Institute for Machine Tools and Forming Technology, and whether she plans to continue living her future here.

On behalf of the Public Relations department, Christiane Matthieu is responsible for the camera and editing, and we would like to thank her once again.

In the coming weeks, Tunisian Sadok Fennira will present his reasons for 'arriving here'.

Video: Christiane Matthieu, M.A.

Text: Cornelia Rothe, M.A.