Ivan

Today, with the war going on in my country, the most important things for me are security and the opportunity to complete my studies.

My name is Ivan. I am from Mariupol, a city in eastern Ukraine. My way in IT began at school where I learned the basics of programming. Then I went to the IT department at Azov State Technical University, where the main emphasis was on the study of higher mathematics. For two years, I studied mobile application development in parallel with the main program and enrolled in one of the universities in Odesa,  majoring in Software Engineering. There I diligently studied the stages of software design and development, DBMS, system and web programming, and developed games and mobile applications.

During the second semester of my master's degree, I studied remotely due to Covid quarantine. It seems as long we got used to this another shock arrived – a full-scale invasion by the Russian armed forces on 24 February. The fighting started in my hometown Mariupol. Planes, warships, and missiles bombed it all of a sudden. My parents and I managed to leave before the city was occupied. Last spring, a hundred thousand civilians were killed in Mariupol. Luckily, my family safely escaped to Odesa where I found out about the double degree program at Anhalt University and came to Germany.

 Among the most obvious pluses of Germany is the high-quality education. Teachers here use the "knowledge to practice" approach, which I find highly involving and motivating.

I plan to find a job in mobile app development or VR technology, gain experience, develop, and learn German. My scholarship will be spent on implementing my ideas, in mobile or game development. I would like to start traveling more, to see new cities, and to meet more IT specialists. Moving abroad is not just about language difficulties or adaptation; it is about invaluable knowledge and experience that will make you a specialist.