Urban Gardening in Delmenhorst

by Liz Bodenman ’20

Over the course of the Spring Semester, I had the pleasure of participating in an Urban Gardening course called “Projekt Seminar Wollepark,” in which students would travel to the nearby town of Delmenhorst once a week and participate in a project to help improve the conditions of the public park. 20 students in total, we were expected to break up into groups and come up with projects according to our interests. My group was interested in the perception of Garden Culture, and what certain people idealize when imagining their perfect garden. The idea behind this was to go to Delmenhorst and ask its residents (who are a very diverse group of immigrants and refugees) to draw what they pictured the perfect garden to be. Every week for 12 weeks we would go and ask different people to draw for us; the end result was a published photo book containing pictures of the drawings and participants, as well as a summary of our findings.

I enjoyed this course because it was a break from the normal university curriculum and offered an opportunity that Dickinson does not offer. I was able to go out into a community I was unfamiliar with, practice my German, and befriend other “Ausländer” like myself who were starting a new life here. It was also very interesting to learn about permaculture, building structures to attract certain insects desirable for the garden in the town center that the class helped maintain, and develop a basic understanding of urban planning. In the future, I highly recommend students take this course if it is added again. Otherwise, for those with an interest in gardening, urban planning, or simply volunteering with children and the elderly, take the 10-minute train to Delmenhorst and stop by the Nachbarschaftszentrum Wollepark. You will surely be welcomed with open arms. Wollepark Website: https://wollepark.de/

Internship at Clinic

by Sandi Kadric ’20

I did a an internship at for the last two weeks in March and every Friday from April to July. I shadowed a nurse anesthesiologist. They are very nice, and they are very helpful in explaining procedures during surgeries. I had the chance to prepare the patient before surgery such as setting up the medications, blood pressure, EKG, and IV bag. I actually had patient contact and interaction, which is difficult to do in America especially in a hospital setting. Everyone spoke ONLY German with me (except for a couple of words here and there), and yes, I had to ask questions to the patients, and it helped me to learn to be confident.

I learned different methods of certain surgeries. For example, patients lose more blood during knee replacement surgeries than in America. I had the option to choose what surgeries to watch, so I saw a variety of surgeries such as spine surgery, joint replacements, general surgeries, etc. I learned the differences between the German health care system and American health care system, and I would recommend anyone who is pre-med to do this internship because – aside from learning so much – you can receive a letter at the end and put it on your medical school application. It will help you look diverse and stand out from other applicants.

THE ranking: University of Bremen once again among the 50 best young universities worldwide

© University of Bremen

The University of Bremen is once again confirmed to be among the world’s top 50 young universities. This is the result of the latest “Times Higher Education (THE) Young University Ranking 2018”. Bremen is ranked on place 34 among the 250 listed universities.

Especially good in research

Various indicators are measured in the categories of teaching, research, the frequency of scientific citations, third-party funding from industry and the internationality of students and staff. The indicators evaluate key statistics in these categories. In the case of quality measurement, statistical ratios such as staff per student or the number of completed doctoral theses are also compared. The University of Bremen was able to improve its results in most categories. Particularly noteworthy is the result in the category research. Here, the University of Bremen was able to improve by 11.5 points on the previous year.

The President of the University of Bremen, Professor Bernd Scholz-Reiter, is naturally pleased with the result: “It is very encouraging to see that we moved forward in 2018 as well. This shows that the University of Bremen conducts teaching and research at a high level.”

More information under:

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings/2018/young-university-rankings#!/page/1/length/25/sort_by/rank/sort_order/asc/cols/stats