Alumni portraits 2024
Written by EMADOM
EMA-DOM reached out to some alumni of Europa Master and inquired about their career paths.
We are happy about the provided insights and hope they help in shaping your own way forward!
Thank you to Amandine, Christoph and Stefan!
| Who are you? |
Amandine Duraz (first generation) |
Christoph Hartmann (first generation) |
Stefan Michalczyk (fourth generation) |
| What is your current position/occupation – what are you doing there? | My current position is Head of the Una Europa unit at University Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne. Una Europa is a European University alliance which brings together 11 research-intensive universities across Europe. Together we are working on creating a transnational European campus, where students, teachers, researchers and professional staff from our 11 universities can connect, study, research and work together. My job consists of facilitating the development of new transnational initiatives and co-developing joint innovative formats for education, both at my university and at the level of our alliance. | I am currently working as deputy head of the Managing Authority for the European Fund for regional Development, the European Social Fund and the Just Transition Fund in the Ministry of Finance of the German Region Saxony-Anhalt. The Managing Authority is responsible for implementing the EU funds in the region and acts as a coordinating body between the European Commission and the regional government. I am mainly responsible for designing the procedures for selecting projects and for communicating about the funded projects and the achievements linked to them. | Currently, I am working as head of office and research assistant for a member of the German Parliament in her electoral district. I am supporting my delegee in the entirety of her actions in her constituency and am taking responsibility for tasks such as agenda setting, contact with the authorities and the public, stakeholder contacts within and outside the political party, citizens’ correspondence, press contact, event planning from a range of the visit of a minister to events with small local associations, management of three office dependencies and human resources. |
| What do you associate with the Europa Master? | Europa Master was much more than only a Master’s degree to me. The experience of living and studying together with students from France, Germany, Poland and beyond, in three countries and in three different academic systems had an immense impact on my personal development. Europa Master not only taught me about Europe, the Weimar triangle, political theories and European law, but it also made me feel what it means to be European, about the sense of belonging together, and about the difference between being a guest and a host. I of course associate with Europa Master studies and academic research, but I will also always remember the cultural discoveries and travels I made, and the long-lasting friendships. I was also one of the founders of the EMA-DOM: already at that time, it felt important to me to create a structure to support students, connect alumni and students together and encourage mutual support, and to give us the opportunity to continue to learn more about Europe and the Weimar triangle. | For me the Europa Master programme was a unique opportunity to study and live in different countries in a rather short time together with people from different countries and various professional and personal backgrounds. This also meant packing suitcases quite often and adapting quickly to new living but also study conditions. Moving around and living together - sometimes even sharing a room – created a special group feeling that can hardly be found in other study programmes. But also the intergenerational exchange is something I associate with the Europa Master programme. | With the Europa Master, I associate the unique experience of living and studying in three different European countries within two years, connecting with people from all kinds of different backgrounds as well as getting profound insights into the culture and systems of these three countries. The Europa Master already gives many opportunities for internships to get the first experience in working life during the studies. |
| What would you have liked to know about working life after graduating? | I wish I had known how important the knowledge and skills I have learned through Europa Master would be for my future career. I feel Europa Master was the best preparation for my current job that I could have ever imagined: the legal thinking and the knowledge of the functioning of the EU, as well as the intercultural skills I have acquired, are very helpful for me to understand my working environment. Having myself studied in a trinational degree and having seen how university cooperation can work in practice is also extremely precious for me so that I don’t forget the students’ perspective when developing joint formats for education. | Thanks to the internships already done during my Bachelor and also the internship at the end of the Europa Master there were no big surprises when entering working life after the graduation. However, I was surprised about the variety of jobs that are related to EU affairs. Many of them don’t come to your mind during the studies although they are fitting perfectly for Europa Master graduates. | One thing one cannot stress enough is the need for a network to get a successful start in working life after graduating |
