August 31, 2020
Jacobs University offers excellent study conditions to math talents. The Sparkasse Bremen also contributes to these conditions: it has now extended the cooperation agreement for the promotion of particularly talented students at the international University for another ten years. Students from the fields of Mathematics and Data Engineering will benefit from the cooperation with the financial institution, which has been in place since 2011. The up to eight young talents come from Germany and abroad and are distinguished by outstanding achievements.
This year, one of them was a young Bremen citizen. Malte Haßler completed his studies a few weeks ago with excellent grades. The 20-year-old graduated from a Bremen High School in 2017 and then began studying Mathematics at Jacobs University. He will now continue his studies at one of the most renowned US universities, Cornell University in New York, where he will complete a PhD program in pure Mathematics.
This year's four Mathematics graduates, who were sponsored under the cooperation agreement, all graduated with top results and have already been accepted for study programs at leading universities. Once again, particularly talented Mathematics students will be supported this year: Dania Sana from Albania and Martin Irungu from Kenya.
The two mathematicians at Jacobs University, Prof. Dr. Igors Gorbovickis and Prof. Dr. Sören Petrat, decide each year who will receive the three-year grant. In addition to professional strengths and enthusiasm for Mathematics, social skills and other abilities such as artistic talents also play a role. "The Mathematics Scholarship of Sparkasse Bremen gives us the opportunity to offer the best international applicants an additional incentive to come to Bremen and at the same time to interest local talents in Jacobs University," emphasizes Sören Petrat. "The current graduating class reflects this very well. In addition to Malte Haßler from Bremen, we had another student from Northern Germany, a student from Romania and a student from Nepal in our sponsorship program. We are very pleased that the Sparkasse is continuing this commitment."
The Sparkasse Bremen has supported the program with more than 200,000 Euros in the past years and will make this amount available again. Prof. Dr. Heiko Staroßom, Member of the Sparkasse Bremen Management Board, emphasizes, "The support of children and young people is an important social responsibility, which Sparkasse Bremen has been addressing for a long time within the scope of its charitable support. This begins with improving the chances of education and social participation. This also includes enabling children and young people to discover and develop their strengths – and goes all the way to the targeted promotion of talent.
In recent years, for example, Sparkasse Bremen has repeatedly supported initiatives for school children who, even in their free time, enjoy exploring mathematical topics together, training for competitions and providing mutual support. Then the step to studying Mathematics is often not far away. The Mathematics Scholarship Program enables particularly gifted Mathematics students to develop their talents together with an international group of fellow students. In the past, for example, students have repeatedly achieved remarkable successes in nationwide competitions that have been noticed far beyond Bremen.