A serious commitment to voluntary work

Enlarge

Annalina Mak started doing taekwondo, her favorite sport, at an early age. “I can’t remember exactly when it was,” she laughs. For her, it was always just really fun. And Vaterstetten was exactly the right locality in which to pursue this hobby: It has long been known for its successful competitions and tournaments. One day, Annalina was spotted by a talent scout. “That got me into serious competitive sport,” the native of Munich says. Not long afterward, she joined up with the Bavarian squad, representing her state in many championships.

The 21-year-old has already been German champion several times. “There are an incredible number of different disciplines in taekwondo,” she explains. To get into the squad, you have to earn points at various international tournaments. For their performance, Annalina and her team regularly won awards from regional mayors, so things could have gone on this way indefinitely. After graduating from high school, however, she asked herself: Do I continue? Or do I go for a good degree?

Double degree and voluntary work

Annalina opted for the latter, which, in her case, meant business administration. While still at school, she had already been interested in how business processes operate. And shortly after commencing her studies, she realized that she still had room for a little more. The prospect of gaining fresh perspectives also appealed to her. Thus it was that she added political science to make it a double degree course. “Business administration is a bit one-sided,” she explains, “so I wanted to add a second social component.” In addition, she could see herself working for a non-governmental organization after completing her master’s.

Despite her busy study schedule, Annalina didn’t want to completely lose touch with her taekwondo club. “I had spent so much time there and the trainers had always supported me,” she recalls. Wanting to give something back to the club, she therefore signed up – despite studying two subjects – as a taekwondo trainer for the Vaterstetten tournament team. She is a little proud that some of her protégés have made it to the Bavarian squad, and that she can thus play a part in the club’s sporting success. “Sport also gives the children greater self-confidence, a better feel for their own body and the ability to deal with stress.”

Germany Scholarship: More than just a financial boost

Another voluntary commitment is the work Annalina does on the LMU Buddy program, a mentoring arrangement to help exchange students get acclimatized more quickly in Munich. “If people actively decide to come to LMU, I obviously want to show them what the university and the city have to offer,” she says, explaining her decision. The 21-year-old now helps them organize their studies and prepare for exams, as well as showing them around the city, visiting beer gardens or going skiing with them. After spending a semester studying in the UK, she can better understand the needs of her foreign buddies.

As if all that were not enough, Annalina also gets involved with trial lectures at LMU to help would-be students – high school leavers or young people taking a gap year out. Many of these people have lots of questions about what a course of study looks like. “I know how lost I felt with everything that was on offer when I started studying,” she notes. But there is only so much that parents, friends and acquaintances can do to help. Whether they need to choose a course, understand how the course is structured, learn about student life or how much they will need to study, the LMU student always tries to pass on her experience to schoolchildren who are interested in a place at the university.

“That’s why the Germany Scholarship is more than a financial boost for me,” she insists: Without this financial assistance, she would have to significantly reduce her voluntary activities. The only question that remains is: How does the 21-year-old find the time for her studies, regular internships, the Scholarship Days mandated by her sponsor and a private life on top? Annalina just laughs: “Once you get started, it’s not as much as it sounds.”