31.03.2026 CZSconnect Germany Scholarship recipients network in Jena: insights, exchanges and prospects
Almost 30 students from Friedrich Schiller University Jena (FSU) and Ernst Abbe University Jena (EAH) recently came together for a joint meeting of Germany Scholarship holders in Jena. Scholarship holders from both the Ernst Abbe Foundation (EAS) and the Carl-Zeiss-Stiftung (CZS) were represented.
Phil-Alan Gärtig, Program Manager of the CZS, and Jörg Hühn, Deputy Managing Director of the EAS, also took part in the event and used the opportunity to talk to the students and discuss the eventful history of the sister foundations.
The participants reflected the great diversity of disciplines at the EAH and FSU. In addition to students from a wide range of STEM subjects, prospective teachers and students from sports and communication sciences were also represented.
The cozy dinner focused on personal exchange. The students discussed the differences and similarities between their degree courses as well as their experiences of studying and living in Jena. The role of sport in everyday student life was also discussed.
In addition, the scholarship holders provided exciting insights into their individual academic paths: talks about Master's theses in neurobiology were accompanied by reports on research stays in Antarctica. Fundamental questions were also discussed - such as what exactly is behind the subject of nutritional sciences or how it is possible to study physics and mathematics at the same time.
The meeting impressively demonstrated how enriching the exchange between the subjects is and how diverse the perspectives and life paths of the sponsored students are.
The Carl-Zeiss-Stiftung currently supports 150 Deutschlandstipendien at a total of 19 universities in Baden-Württemberg, Rhineland-Palatinate and Thuringia, thus creating scope for young academics in the STEM subjects.