| Seminar für Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaft

GeKo Reunion: Meeting of health communication students and alumni

On November 19, 2022, students of the master's program met with alumni, teachers and friends of the professorship for health communication. The "2nd GeKo Reunion" provided the perfect setting for getting to know each other, networking and exchanging information about project work and master theses, first jobs and future opportunities.

The students of the classes of 2021 & 2022 were able to get to know each other during get-to-know games and casual conversations over coffee & cake in the cozy ambience of Franz Mehlhose in Erfurt. The 3rd semester students presented the research they conducted as part of the seminar "Empirical Methods":

  • "Impact of One Health on the Theory of Planned Behavior" (Laura Goldhahn, Tim Riester, Dana Erb, Sophia Rose and Maja Brockmeyer).
  • "Implementing the Planetary Health Diet into a work-place setting" (Maike Bechtold, Valeria Maslov, Katja Schröder, and Josephine Wegner)
  • "Implementing the 'ImpfBuddy' chatbot to promote COVID-19 vaccination intention (Kerstin Breuer, Clara Englisch, Sabine Fries, Anika Pötzschke, Paula A. Riveros, Chiara Santjer and Sophia Wenzel.
  • "Framing for action. Assessing microplastic-related threat potential for planetary health as a political participation catalyzer" (Robert Bruckmann, Janina Huber and Kira Maur)

Afterwards, Prof. Cornelia Betsch reported on what the master's program has achieved in the years since its foundation 6 years ago. In addition, we were able to bid a ceremonial farewell to last year's graduates. They received an "Honorary GeKo" certificate and an exciting discussion arose about the professional opportunities after graduation.

A guest lecture by Maike Voss, health scientist and managing director at KLUG | Allianz für Klimawandel und Gesundheit e.V., on the topic of political communication and the opportunities and risks for the policy field of "Planetary Health", was the highlight of the evening for many. She gave very exciting insights into her work with political decision makers.

Delicious food and a performance by the acoustic band Laurasson rounded off a really successful event.

We hope that the "Geko-Reunion" will have a permanent place in our calendar and that it can take place again next year. The familiar atmosphere of the study program, the togetherness of students, teachers and alumni, is simply wonderful,"

summarized the organizers Josephine Wegner and Kira Maur happily after the event.

Special thanks go to the Student Council of the University of Erfurt, the Erfurt Association for Communication and Media e.V. and BARMER for their support.

(Photos: Franky Siegler)

GeKo Reunion 19.11.2022 Class of 2022
The 2022 cohort of the Master's in Health Communication for the GeKo alumni reunion on Nov. 19, 2022.