All SoMu students successfully completed the first leg of their international Master journey in Kaunas and are about to start the second semester in Mainz. Herzlich willkommen! The entire SoMu Faculty Team also seizes the possibility to warmly congratulate Frederik Bissinger, a first-generation SoMu student who was awarded with the Vytautas Magnus University Encouragement scholarship for his extraordinary academic achievements.
For some SoMu students – or, as we call them within the programme: SoMus – the current semester marks a new beginning characterised by a great opportunity to enlarge horizons by getting to know new people, Germany and the German culture. For those who so far do not speak German, learning the language will be one of the key aspects during the semester at JGU. Additionally to the sociolinguistic courses, the semester will combine business with academic and leisure-time pleasures. The first SoMu symposium with student and staff papers and several interdisciplinary guest lectures will take place in mid-May. In late June, the students and the Mainz staff will head to a study trip to Brussels where a visit to the European Parliament as well as an exclusive meeting at the German Research Organisation is scheduled. We will not forget the Manneken Piss either!
Since the publication of the first SoMu Newsletter, a lot has been done at all partner universities to make the programme better and more widely known. The Mainz team is happy to present the publication of the SoMu information brochure in English language. The 26-page booklet gives detailed information on the programme curriculum and the many benefits that studying in it can offer the students. The brochure provides an individual presentation of each of the participating faculties and universities as well. All in all, the information focuses on the aspects that are the most important for the future students: What do the participating universities have to offer? What is the city like where I am going to study? What is the (student) life like there? And – last but not least – what do other SoMu students say about the programme and its benefits? The brochure is available online and can be distributed through all digital channels and shared on websites and through the social media.
In addition to the brochure, an information video in German has been released and is available online as well. An English version and a Lithuanian version are being prepared. The video addresses BA students and gives them an eight-minute insight into how the SoMu programme is organized and what it has to offer. The curriculum is explained via a virtual journey through Europe, following the path of a SoMu student from Kaunas to Mainz and further on to Stockholm and Tartu. It also reflects some of the statements made by students of the first generation about their views on the programme.
With the help of the brochure and the video which represent new and visually more attractive advertising tools we hope to be able to reach an extended circle of students, mainly via internet and social media. We have not forgotten the personal forms of advertising, either: information events at JGU took place in December 2013 and February 2014, and a third event with an open-doors possibility of seeing what is being done in the programme will be organised in May, just in time for the application deadline. Stay tuned!