Sebastian Rönsch

Motivation
February 2004

The idea of going to Africa for a whole year has already existed for a longer time in my mind. At the beginning, it was not more than a vision, like a thing you can see only blurred through a thick fog. It had been clear to me that it is almost impossible to combine a stay in Africa with my physics studies. However, the moment I heard about the Berlin-Nairobi student exchange, the fog began to lift and my Africa idea became tangible. This unique Berlin-Nairobi Exchange enables young people, like me, to combine their studies with a longer stay in an extraordinary country.

Africa fascinates me extremely. I am very interested in the history, the different religions, the unique landscape, and the mentality of the people living there. The Berlin-Nairobi student exchange would offer me the opportunity to become acquainted with a distant African country, like Kenya, much deeper and more intensely than it would be possible if I were a tourist. Former participants of the exchange programme report about a marked community sense among the students on the campus. I would like to become a part of this student community and to become acquainted first-hand with the African way of living and studying.
The life as an exchange student in Nairobi is certainly very interesting because of the numerous differences and surely it is not often so simple. Living in Kenya and studying there is a challenge for me. Therefore, I was recently intensely occupied with the following questions: Am I up to this challenge of living and studying in black Africa? How would I deal with difficult situations and possible intercultural conflicts? On the search for honest answers, I remembered different experiences in my past. During a longer international meeting in France, I was enriched by meeting people from different countries. There, I became acquainted with young Africans. I came in contact with their mentality and learned something about their way to master problems and tasks in everyday life. That is why I believe to know a bit of what I am might be getting involved in. Therefore, I would like to point out that I can bear responsibility, be trustful, increase team spirit, be selfless, deal with people thinking differently, and keep a clear mind in conflict situations. I gained all these abilities by leading children and youth groups for years, through my experiences in karate, and also through my job with homeless people. Friends and acquaintances often tell me that I am a very tolerant human being. I always consider other cultures with an open mind. In addition, I also see the chance to bring my own culture to Nairobi. Maybe people there can profit from my experiences in life.
After careful consideration, I made the decision that I am ready to master successfully the great challenge to study and to live in black Africa. After this year, I hope to take something from the African way of life and mentality to Germany, to preserve it for me, and to carry it on to other people.

The different culture certainly offers also other models of thinking and approaches in the sciences. I am very much interested in becoming acquainted with such differences in the field of physics because a physicist should be able to consider a phenomenon in many different ways. There surely will be some other models in the lectures. They would enlarge my own studying methods and be an enrichment for my later studies here in Germany. Perhaps it is also possible the other way round: to bring some ideas and impulses from my previous studies in Germany to Nairobi. In any case, a connecting element will be physics itself because in Kenya the same physical rules are valid as here in Germany. It is a pleasant fact that encourages me.
This academic year would become a good component of my studies. I read that the university of Nairobi is one of the best universities between the Sahara and South Africa. That is why, during this time, I can study physics on a qualitatively high level. Furthermore, I found out that most of the offered and successfully passed courses can be integrated well into my entire studies. Other courses will be an excellent addition. The best time for such an exchange is after my exam, called “Vordiplom”, in the summer of 2004. The many different subject areas of physics will then still be very familiar to me and the technique of studying independently will then have become routine. Former exchange students reported about small classes. This is surely a great advantage and I imagine the lessons are more personal due to that. The international language of physics is English and in Nairobi English is the language in which classes are taught. I am definitely going to profit from this combination.
I am conscious of the fact that I am representing the German physics students and physicists in Nairobi and forming the impression which Kenyan students and lecturers obtain of Germany through me. I am very interested in establishing personal and friendly contacts to students and lectures in Nairobi so that the international relations are being extended even more by personal acquaintances.

All the projects, connected with the exchange are very interesting. Especially the project "Renewable Energies" fills me with enthusiasm. The field of photovoltaic has already fascinated me since my school time. I intend in the further course of my studies to specialize in this area as far as possible. Such a project even seems wise to me. This project makes sense in a region like Kenya because no competition is created by a coal or atomic energy lobby. I also see a good chance for true developmental co-operation in this project, instead of, as so often, merely development aid. For me, the exchange programme is an especially good opportunity to take part in such a project because, for me here in Germany, nothing is comparable to this extent.

At the beginning, I had difficulties with the thought of giving up all my social activities here in Berlin and to be so far away from family and friends. Nevertheless, the intensive discussion with the people of the Berlin-Nairobi exchange programme and my wish to go away for a longer time has convinced me that I am absolutely determined to take part in this programme. I imagine living and studying in Nairobi is so interesting that it will satisfy me completely. Should you decide on me, of which I would be very happy, I will participate in this exchange from the beginning until the end with all its consequences and invest all my energy and creativity all the time so that the Berlin-Nairobi exchange becomes a great success for everyone who is involved. My motivation is increased by the possibility of collaborating with the people of the Berlin-Nairobi Exchange on various projects and by the chance to receive a DAAD scholarship. Please give me the unique chance to be allowed studying at the University of Nairobi in the academic year 2004/05. A dream would come true for me if the fog, which I mentioned at the beginning, would completely dissolve around my Africa idea and I could look clearly towards an academic year in Kenya.

Sebastian Rönsch, February 2004