“The ISU WU program helped me to be sure about my future choices.”

A lot of things are different this summer – so was the ISU^WU program 2020. Due to the Covid 19 pandemic, this WU undergraduate program was opened to WU students for the first time and served as an internationally oriented replacement program for this year’s Joint ISUs. One of the participants in this summer program was Anna-Sophia Juen. We asked her for an interview for the WU blog.

WU Blog: You attended ISU^WU in this summer – can you give us an impression of how you liked the academic program and courses?

Anna-Sophia Juen: The international Summer University program with its courses allows each participating student to not only discover new cultures and nationalities but also experiencing enriching classes that have valuable content. Through group projects and interesting topics that give students something to think about the relationships between the international students become stronger sand the course topics get internalized. The lecturers are interested in giving the students every information the need in order to feel comfortable with the specific topic and want to make sure that everything is understood.

Working with paper from Harvard business reports and Stanford papers also allowed to have a new insight compared to studying about top-ics from books as one can better comprehend how research several key points. The material provided was demanding but very beneficial to put into practice in the classes. It was a great opportunity to widen one’s horizon academically.

WU Blog: How did you like the ISU^WU as an online format?

Anna-Sophia Juen: Due to the COVID-19 crisis many organizations and programs had to adapt to the situation. The ISU^WU program managed to convey the course topics in an interesting way and additionally creating opportunities to the students to make friendships even without personal contact. Being divided in smaller groups for little projects or presentation encourages each one of us to get to know each other and contribute to the course with strong teamwork. With the time it became normal to communicate through MS Teams.

“The ISU^WU makes it possible to experience a kind of international exchange and gives the opportunity to specialize oneself.”

Regarding my personal experience, I even got to know someone who lives just a few minutes away from me and we did not know each other before or another example would be that I am still in contact with people from the United States or Japan. Teamwork inside and outside the classes. No matter from which origin, we were all super supportive and encouraging. Therefore, it is remarkable how the program allowed us students to exchange virtually and also to build such a strong relationship even though it was all in distance-learning format.

WU Blog: How did you like the Enrichment program?

Anna-Sophia Juen: Besides the courses about individual topics, the Enrichment program again allows to get to know each other even better and also gives the opportunity to gather new information about nationalities, cultures and people. What is outstanding is the motivation and kindness of the organizers and the mission to really convey information about foreign cultures.

WU Blog: Whome would you recommend the ISU^WU program?

Anna-Sophia Juen: I would recommend the ISU^WU for every student no matter which origin or nationality who is eager to make the effort to contribute to each individual topic and who wants to improve his or her knowledge. Especially nowadays, almost every student seeks to have some international knowledge and to find out more about specific topics.

The ISU^WU makes it possible to experience a kind of international exchange and gives the opportunity to specialize oneself. Before the program I was not quite sure what business areas I am 100% interested in as there are so many to choose from. The program helped me to be sure about my future choices and how I want to put the acquired knowledge into practice in my everyday life. As an Austrian student for me it was really special to meet so many people from different countries and discussing fascinating topics gave me the findings that it is important to talk to other people with different background so that several perspectives could be taken into account. All in all, it was remarkable how the content of the classes and the international exchange were connected and conducted together.