Newsroom/Programs & exchange·March 2, 2023·7 min read

15 German students head to USA for RIAS ERP program

A group of 15 German students will be traveling to the USA for a three-week RIAS Berlin Commission ERP fellowship starting on March 17. The students — 10 of whom are from eastern Germany — will spend a week together as a group in New York, visiting with American and German journalists, TV and radio stations as well as the Hasidic Jewish section of Williamsburg in Brooklyn and the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem.

The students will then travel in smaller groups of one to three for two-week visits to American universities to learn more about how students in the United States prepare for journalism careers. The German students will visit American student journalists at the University of Oklahoma, Indiana University, the University of Nebraska, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Wisconsin-Oshkosh, the University of Montana, the University of Arizona in Tucson and Arizona State University in Phoenix.

It will be the second of eight planed RIAS Berlin Commission fellowships in 2023 — four to the USA for German journalists and four to Germany for American journalists. A total of about 130 journalists from the two countries will be taking part in the exchange programs this year, one of the largest numbers since the German-American exchange program was created more than 30 years ago.

The ERP program is supported by the Transatlantic Program of the Federal Republic of Germany. It is funded by the European Recovery Program (ERP) of the Federal Economy and Energy (BMWi) Ministry.

In New York, the German student journalists will also meet a survivor of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center, a senior Anti-Defamation league leader, a crisis communications manager, a major Con Edison power plant, the governor of New Jersey, borough of Staten Island senior officials, as well as attending Amateur Night at the Apollo Theater and a Broadway musical. They will meet with senior journalists from NBC News, WNBC, The New York Times, ABC News, Vice, ARD radio and television

Here is more information about the 15 German students taking part in the March 17-April 7 RIAS Berlin Commission fellowship:

Jacqueline Albrecht, University of Applied Sciences Magdeburg

Jacqueline Albrecht is a journalism student at the UAS Magdeburg- Stendal and will graduate in 2023. In 2022 she did an internship at a radio station in Windhoek, Namibia and currently she is hosting the Campus-TV at her university. Albrecht plans to pursue a career in TV, travel or international journalism with a focus on telling stories about people, culture and society.

Linda Bachmann, Leipzig University, Leipzig

Linda Bachmann is studying journalism at University Leipzig. She also works full-time as a radio news anchor at Regiocast, a commercial radio company in Leipzig. Bachmann has worked on several projects on press freedom, fake news and intercultural exchange, for instance for Deutsche Welle public broadcasting, and also worked for Der Tagesspiegel newspaper in Berlin and MDR television in Leipzig.

Wiebke Bolle, FreeTech, Axel Springer Academy, Berlin

Wiebke Bolle is a graduate of the Axel Springer Academy of Journalism and Technology. For the past two years she’s been working at the science and news & society desk of Die Welt newspaper in Berlin. Bolle is hoping to write for major magazines and is also interested in podcasts and TV journalism.

Abel Fekade, Leipzig University, Leipzig

Abel Fekade recently earned a bachelor’s degree in communication and media studies from Leipzig University. He is currently working at the chair of journalism at Leipzig University, where he is co-teaching courses in journalism. During his studies, Fekade has worked in communications and corporate media for the BMW Group. He is planning to enroll into a related master’s degree program in the near future.

Jakob Gierth, FreeTech – Axel Springer Academy, Berlin

Jakob Gierth is both a journalist trainee for FreeTech academy, and a journalist for German publication “Die Welt” newspaper in Berlin. As a journalist, Gierth’s responsibilities include the development of and scripting for WELT’s science podcast. While working on his bachelor’s degree in communication science (University of Erfurt) Gierth minored in sociology and politics, and worked at multiple German radio stations. During this time he worked as editor, host, and customer advisor.

Clara Hoheisel, Martin-Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Halle

Clara Hoheisel has been studying for a master’s degree in multimedia and authorship (digital journalism) at the University of Halle (Saale) since 2021. She also completed her bachelor’s degree in media and communication sciences and psychology there. In addition, the 24-year-old writes for the university magazine “hastuzeit”, is active at the radio station Corax and has worked as an editor for MDR Kultur, Volksverpetzer and the Katapult magazine. She is also an alumna of the EU program youth4regions.

Kim Kristin Loschen, Nordwest newspaper, Oldenburg

Kim Kristin Loschen is a trainee at a German daily newspaper – the „Nordwest-Zeitung”. She completed her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in linguistics and German as a foreign language. At the same time, the trained German teacher has worked for TV channels such as ZDF, WDR and Phoenix (C-Span for Germany) in the political department. Loschen aspires to be a foreign correspondent later in her career.

Lea Nischelwitzer, University Hagen, Berlin

Lea Nischelwitzer is a Psychology studies student at the
Hagen University, lives in Berlin and will graduate in 2023. During her studies, she worked for different regional and national media, among others for Die Welt and Handelsblatt newspapers. She is also taking part in a scholarship program of the Konrad-Adenauer-Foundation (JONA) that supports young journalists through seminars and workshops. Her goal is to work for national news media with a focus on politics. She is especially interested in international politics, economics and theology.

Til Schäbitz, Hamburg University, Leipzig University, Leipzig

Til Schäbitz is working towards a M.A. in journalism and communication-science at the University of Hamburg while living in Leipzig. Alongside his studies he works as a freelance journalist, mainly anchoring radio shows (e.g. detektor.fm) and presenting News- Podcasts (e.g. SPIEGEL, t-online). His work was awarded with a German Radio Award 2021 for “Best Podcast”. As a researcher he published on 360°-VR-journalism.

Anna Seikel, Leipzig University, Leipzig

Anna Seikel has a BA degree in Communication and Media Studies, and is now studying towards an M.A. European Studies at Leipzig University. She is currently an intern at netzpolitik.org, a German initiative reporting on digital rights; and has been active as the head of the university politics section in Leipzig’s independent student newspaper ‘luhze’ until this year.

Jana Sievers, Bielefeld University, Braunschweiger Zeitung

Jana Sievers will complete her Bachelors’ degree in history and literature at the University of Bielefeld in 2023. She has been working as an intern at Braunschweiger Zeitung newspaper (FUNKE Medien) and worked at other daily newspapers in the three previous years. Her special interests are health issues, school politics as well as international politics. She especially enjoys writing feature portraits, producing her own podcast and is eager to have a career in broadcast journalism.

Szuli Wendt, Free University, Berlin

Szuli Wendt is studying Media, Communication, and Political Science at the “Freie Universität Berlin”. She grew up in Eastern Berlin. Alongside her studies she works for the regional public broadcasting “RBB Berlin Brandenburg” as the assistant of the editor in chief for the regional evening news show „Abendschau”. To fulfil her dream of becoming a news anchor to present relevant topics and news from all over the world, she also established her own “Interview” Podcast in 2020.

Simon Wörz, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich

Simon Wörz is a graduate of the German School of Journalism in Munich. He is currently finishing his master’s degree with a semester abroad at the National Autonomous University in Mexico City. He has done various internships and contributed to regional and national newspapers like Stuttgarter Zeitung, Zeit or taz. Most recently, he worked for the public broadcaster Bayerischer Rundfunk on a non-fictional storytelling podcast and published an investigation about the business of carbon offsetting in the course of the soccer world cup in Qatar.

Miriam Wüst, Leipzig University, Leipzig

Miriam Wüst is a Communications and Media Sciences student at the University of Leipzig and will finish her bachelor ́s degree in summer of 2023. She has been working at her University ́s campus radio for two years now and in this time has taken on leading positions and helped with transformation processes. Besides radio journalism she also gained first experiences in TV reporting during an internship at german broadcast ZDF.

Malkam Goytom, Free University, Berlin

Malkam Goytom is studying Business Administration at the “Freie Universität Berlin“ with an interest in journalism and multimedia productions. He will complete his Bachelors’ degree in 2023. Goytom’s academic pursuits have led him to develop a strong interest in journalism, marketing and management, and he plans to attend a Master’s program in these fields upon completing his Bachelor’s degree. He follows American professional sports leagues and sports journalism in the US and hopes to expand his knowledge of those during his USA fellowship

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