Prof. Dr Birgit Scheuerer, Women’s Representative at OTH Regensburg, and Verena Marterer, a PhD student in Electrical Engineering, opened the event and welcomed the schoolgirls, aged between 12 and 15, from various districts of the Upper Palatinate to Girls’ Day.
The two academics spoke about their career paths, from their school days to their current academic work. Andrea Stelzl, Head of the university’s Student Lifecycle Centre, encouraged the girls to undertake further work placements in various sectors: “Gaining a personal impression of the people and their roles and activities, and talking to those working in the professions, is the best form of career guidance and cannot be replaced by theoretical research on the internet.”
Hands-on experience
Following the introduction, the girls split into two groups to get stuck in and try things out for themselves in the laboratories of Applied Natural Sciences or Computer Science.
Prof. Dr Corinna Kaulen and her team guided the participants through making their own lip balm or hand cream, whilst Prof. Dr Johannes Schildgen supported the pupils during the micro:bit Coding Quest programming adventure.
With Prof. Dr Thomas Neidhardt and the civil engineers, the girls learnt new things about various building materials, such as clay, whilst with Prof. Torsten Reitmeier, the participants had lots of fun and a real sense of achievement working with gears in the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering under the motto ‘Gears & Girls’.
During the joint lunch break in the canteen, the participants had the opportunity to ask female students of Microsystems Engineering and Medical Informatics questions about their studies. The Girls’ Day was rounded off with a campus tour.
With some surprising impressions, many new acquaintances and a step further along the long journey of academic and career orientation, the girls set off for home.
Further career guidance opportunities offered by the university can be found on the OTH Regensburg website.
