In our Meet & Greet Welcome Event on 17 March, we had the pleasure to welcome about 50 scholarship holders who have recently arrived in Austria for their studies or research under an OeAD scholarship.
The evening started with a welcome video by Austria’s Minister of Women, Science and Research, Eva-Maria Holzleitner, who used this opportunity to congratulate the scholarship holders on their scholarship and encouraged 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. In addition, Laura Müllner from the Erasmus Student Network (ESN) informed participants about ESN sections, services and local activities for students. A final presentation was given by scholarship holder Mabel Agyiri, 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 in a short time, 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 have food and drinks. They appreciated the opportunity to connect, share experiences and give tips to each other, with one scholarship holder suggesting that the OeAD could “hold more events so we can connect more”. Another scholarship holder also commented that they benefitted most from learning about the experiences of former as well as current scholarship holders.
Hosting our Meet & Greet Welcome Event has become a wonderful tradition that we look forward to every term. We wish all new scholarship holders the very best for their stay in Austria – whether it be a few weeks, months or even years, the memories will last forever.
