Maren Hartstock

How can students be optimally prepared for the transition to a career? Maren Hartstock dedicates herself to this task with passion and competence at the Faculty of Business and Economics by maintaining regional and worldwide networks with relevant partners from practice and institutions, gladly involving alumni/alumnae of the faculty and offering students many opportunities for counselling and personal development, from individual coaching to the organisation of practice-relevant courses.

Maren Hartstock is a research assistant and at the same time an alumna of the Faculty of Business and Economics. After her studies, she first went into business in 1992 and worked in the textile industry and then for a globally active consulting company. She returned to the faculty in 1997 as the managing director of a research institute, but has now been supporting the internationalisation of the faculty for 13 years in the Office of Practice and International Affairs at the Faculty of Business and Economics, maintaining a network of foreign partner universities and looking after both students and lecturers who come to the University of Bremen as part of various exchange programmes or who wish to visit other universities around the world.

Recently, she has been devoting herself exclusively to the subject area of practice and transfer, although the international component will continue to play a role for her. Offering students orientation on starting a career during their studies, accompanying them in an advisory capacity or organising many opportunities where they can network with companies and institutions as potential employers, that will be her core business in the future. Especially the cooperation with practice is close to her heart, as she was able to benefit from this experience herself during her studies and quickly succeeded in entering the job market despite difficulties at the time.

What she appreciates most about her job is the versatility of her work and the closeness to the students, especially being able to follow their development. When they later find their way back to the university as alumnae/alumus to tell students about their own professional experiences or to implement joint events or teaching formats with her, then that is an intangible reward for her work. But the exchange with other relevant network partners with similar areas of responsibility and the fun of continuous development are also important to her. The freedom to shape her own work plays an essential role in this.

For the University of Bremen in 50 years' time, she can imagine that there will no longer be any fixed courses of study, but that everyone will be able to put together an individual course of study according to their own potential and interests, with many opportunities to apply theory in practice and to integrate international experience.