DAAD-Prize for Dilara Ekinci

Dilara Ekinci is a student in the Master's programme "Global Communication: Politics and Society". Born in Turkey, she has attracted attention as an extremely committed and integrating student and is among the best students of her year. One of the highlights of her studies to date was certainly a lecture given to Thuringia's Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow in the State Chancellery. Together with a group of students, she had presented him with communication strategies and political recommendations for Thuringia in the field of anti-discrimination at a seminar - in fluent German, six months after her arrival in Germany. "Dilara Ekinci can certainly be described as a model of integration," says Dr. Anne Grüne, who proposed the student for the award together with colleagues from communication studies. And Dilara Ekinci is also committed to knowledge transfer and dialogue at various levels. On the one hand, as an elected member of the migration advisory board of the city of Jena during the current Corona crisis, she is the protagonist of a Turkish language information video on how to deal with the pandemic for Turkish-speaking migrants* in the region. In addition, Ms Ekinci is part of a student tutoring team within the study programme, which is responsible for organising extramural events for the students and is particularly committed to the integration of new students from all over the world. And last but not least, she is one of the co-initiators* of a new magazine of German and international students, the "Global Community Magazine", which aims to promote the informed exchange of views between German and international students, also beyond Erfurt's borders.

Dr. Anne Grüne: "We are delighted to have Dilara Ekinci in our ranks as a worthy winner of this year's DAAD Prize for outstanding foreign students. We wish her all the best for her future career and are deeply convinced that a successful professional future lies ahead of her.