Gonzalo Landau stood out from the other applicants due to his successful studies, his community work and personal authenticity. He grew up in Panama. After completing secondary school, he worked as a town and tour guide and discovered his great interest in history and his enthusiasm for teaching things to others. Gonzalo Landau has successfully been studying to become a teacher of history and German at Gymnasien (grammar schools) since 2017. He obtained the required qualifications at Greifswald’s own Studienkolleg (Preparatory Courses) on the arts and humanities course, which he completed with very good marks. There, he was also able to further his excellent command of German. The Studienkolleg supported Gonzalo Landau on his chosen path and it enabled him to meet people from all over the world, and from Greifswald.
Due to his excellent study achievements, Gonzalo Landau was selected to work as a student assistant at the Department of History, providing tutorials on an introduction to historical studies and ancient history, courses that he greatly enjoys planning and holds independently. This position provides him with the opportunity to prove not only his subject expertise, but also his teaching skills. During his studies, his research interests have been based above all on modern Spanish history and ancient Rome. Various excursions have already taken him not only to the Hanseatic towns of Stralsund and Lübeck, but also as far away as Lisbon and Novgorod.
His community work also makes him stand out from the crowd. Gonzalo Landau capitalises on his huge interest for languages, providing after-school help in English, Latin and Spanish, his native language. Furthermore, he has volunteered in the field of media education at the ComputerSpielSchule Greifswald (CSG) since his third semester of studies. He considers his own education at a grammar school that specialised in information technology to be particularly useful for this work. The things he likes most about his work at CSG are the freedom he is given to develop own educational projects and the resulting responsibility.
And where does Gonzalo Landau see himself in the future? ‘Greifswald was and will remain the place where I was able to develop the person I am today. The town’s active offers have also made it possible for me to keep up with my musical skills, allowing me to make valuable new friends with whom I play in a band or am able to relax. As I have now met so many people in this town – whether during teaching activities or whilst playing music with my friends – I would be delighted to continue my teaching on the Baltic Sea coast and to share a morsel of the world with the people living here.
Further Information
The prize has been awarded by the DAAD for more than 10 years. It aims to underline the enrichment that international students can bring to the university community and helps give them a face.
The photos are available on request from pressestelleuni-greifswaldde and can be used for free for editorial purposes in combination with this media release. If published, the author of the image must be named.
Contact at the University of Greifswald
Dr. Hasmik Hunanyan
International Office
Domstraße 8, 17489 Greifswald
Tel.: +49 03834 420 1117
international.officeuni-greifswaldde