Bertelsmann Scholarships Awarded To Two Media Sciences Students At Bielefeld University

Bielefeld University has awarded its first two Bertelsmann scholarships for Master’s degree students in "Interdisciplinary Media Sciences." The two recipients will receive €500 from Bertelsmann for six months to help them finish their master’s thesis. The first two "Bertelsmann Scholars" in Bielefeld are Maha Salem and Ulli Waltinger; both are researchers in text technology and are exploring ideas to facilitate user prompting on the Internet. Bertelsmann has supported the "Interdisciplinary Media Sciences" degree since its inception at Bielefeld University in the winter semester of 2003. Our media company has sent executives to lecture at the university, hosted workshops and organized internships in the group. "By cooperating with the university, we seek to promote active dialog between academe and business," explains Heribert Sangs, Director of Corporate Education at the Corporate Center in Gütersloh. "We wish to support practical content in the curriculum while also increasing students’ awareness of Bertelsmann as an employer." Heribert Sangs was also one of the judges that picked Bertelsmann’s first two scholarship recipients in a two-step application procedure. The students first had to present their theses in a written exposé, then give an oral presentation of the content, methods and aims of their work in the second round. "The Bertelsmann scholarships allow us to pay tribute to theses that are especially innovative and ambitious," beams Petra Pansegrau, a lecturer in the "Interdisciplinary Media Sciences" curriculum at Bielefeld University. The two students selected – Maha Salem and Ulli Waltinger – will now present the progress on their thesis to Bielefeld University at regularly intervals. In addition, the plan is for the two scholarship recipients to present their research to a select group of Bertelsmann executives.