In our Meet & Greet Welcome Event on 23 October, we had the pleasure to welcome almost 80 scholarship holders who have recently arrived in Austria for their studies or research under an OeAD scholarship. Among those were, for the very first time, recipients of the new Erhard Busek Grant.
The evening started with a special surprise for the scholarship holders when Austria’s Minister of Women, Science and Research, Eva-Maria Holzleitner, spoke to them in a welcome video, congratulating them on their scholarship and encouraging them to stay in touch with Austria in the future. This introduction was followed by a warm welcome from OeAD staff, with Sigrid Koller presenting facts about the OeAD and Katharina Engel providing useful information for the scholarship stay. A final presentation was given by APPEAR scholarship holder Sona Balasanyan, who talked about her experience of living and studying in Austria and shared tips on how to navigate both student and cultural life in a new country.
The informative part of the evening was followed by an interactive one, in which students engaged in three activities: The speedfriending activity provided an opportunity for them to get to know lots of fellow scholarship holders, a quiz tested their knowledge about Austria, and the “Paint Your Studies” activity sparked conversations not only about their fields of study, but also about their art skills.
After a fun hour of participating in these activities, the scholarship holders were invited to socialise over food and drinks. They also enjoyed taking pictures using a photo box, which produced lots of fun memories in the course of the evening. As scholarship holders from all parts of Austria attended the event, they used the opportunity to connect, share experiences and give tips to each other. Friends were made, and phone numbers were shared. Several participants reported that the most important benefit of this event was “getting to know people with different backgrounds and cultures” and, as one scholarship holder put it, “the best part is, I have friends all over Austria.”
Hosting our Meet & Greet Welcome Event has become a wonderful tradition that we look forward to every year: welcoming new scholarship holders, providing them with useful information, and connecting them with fellow students all over Austria. We wish all of them the very best for their stay in Austria – whether it be a few weeks, months or even years, the memories will last forever.
