G'Day, I'm Franz,
I'm a 22-years old Economics student at Goethe
University from
Frankfurt a.M., but,
as you hopefully can
tell by this website, my true passion lies in the development of websites and
other IT topics, such as the cloud. Besides my studies, I'm
currently working as a cybersecurity intern at a consulting firm and also
work as a
freelance web developer at my own business.
I made this website as
part of my application for the
Restart
Australia scholarship for the University
of Queensland and
to show you why I am the right person to represent GOstralia!.
With that
being
said, I'd
love to tell you more about my plans at UQ and in
Straya's most liveable city -
Brisbane. :)
Brisbane & I
A German who loves Australia? Definitely neither a
rarity nor new news. Yet, while most
people are dreaming of going to Sydney, Melbourne or the Gold Coast, I've always set my
sight on supposedly “boring” Brisbane.
Back in March 2020, the world started to close itself off and suddenly a 3-week spring
break trip turned into 3 months of being stranded in Brisbane and unable to
return to my
home in Shanghai (fun fact: most of my belongings
are still at a friend's apartment
there). During this time, I'd roam every day through the more or less deserted
streets
of Brisbane and often just sit Kangaroo Point
watching the sun set.
Although, my time in Brisbane was rather monotonous and unexciting, it allowed me
to
think a lot about what really matters to me and what I want to do with my live. All of
this might sound very spiritual and philosophic, but I'll always remember
Brisbane as
the starting point of my current post-covid life.
That's why I'm very excited to return to a bustling Brissie and attend its
flagship
university. Now, without further ado, let's dive into why GOstralia!,
UQ and I are a match made in
heaven!
1# Enthusiasm & reliability
To my mind, the perfect ambassador for GOstralia!
should be reliable and
enthusiastic alike,
in
order to not only fulfill all of their duties on time but also to do it with the
right
amount of motivation, which can make any blogpost or
social media takeover more
authentic and captivating for the reader/viewer.
As a board member and the head of internal affairs of a student consultancy at my
university
with 60+ members, I'm responsible for representing us at large university events,
such
as
the orientation week, as well as for holding short presentations at lectures during
our
recruitment phase. Among my other duties are the organization of internal events and
the
management of HR matters, thus requiring me to be very reliable, as many people and
events
depend
on me. Of course, my enthusiasm and
motivation have always served me well with not
only
completing but also enjoying
my
responsibilities.
Exactly the same enthusiasm has also helped me to
convince my girlfriend to
choose
UQ
and
Brisbane over Germany and the UK for her master's degree.
Either way, if you were to choose me as your ambassador for UQ, you would not only
get
someone reliable but also very enthusiastic about UQ and Brisbane.
#2 UQ values & vision
The University of Queensland's vision of knowledge
leadership for a better
world
resonates strongly with me, as I believe that we should always strive to contribute
to society with our own set of talents and skills.
As a son of a teacher, I always thought that teaching offers the greatest potential
to transform lives. For this reason, I started working as an English teacher for
3-12 year old children during my studies in Shanghai. Yet, as I found myself
locked
out of China and unable to return due to CoVid, I started to look for a new way of
contributing to the public good. However, this time I wanted my engagement to
reflect the economic nature of my new studies.
Thus, in June 2020, two other students and I founded the Frankfurt branch of
The
Finance Class e.V., an initiative aiming to improve the financial
knowledge
of
teenagers by visiting high schools and giving practical classes about topics, such
as taxes and insurances. Aside from multiple school visits, I was also able to use
my web development skills to help create the TFC
Germany website.
At UQ, I want to continue to teach others by
getting a Blue Card and joining the UQ
Refugee Tutoring club.
3# Intercultural competence
Ever since I was a young teenager, foreign languages and the thought of leaving
Germany and exploring distant places captivated me. Today, despite the pandemic
slowdown of the world, I feel lucky to have visited 51 countries - 34 as a
solo
traveler - and to be able to speak three languages
fluently (German, Russian and
English) and two languages at an advanced level (Chinese and Spanish).
My most exciting adventure began after moving alone to Shanghai when I was 19-years old to
play American football in the CNFL and teach
English to children while
studying
Chinese language and literature at Donghua University. During my time there I
had to
adapt to a completely different culture but was also able to dive into one of the
oldest and richest cultures in the world. Even though, I found myself locked out of
my new home and all my future plans shattered after the start of the pandemic, I
found my new calling and fell in love with Australia and the positivity of the
Australian people.
As I've been very worried about forgetting some travel memories, I've been writing a
travel journal dating back until 2017, which
could turn out to be very helpful when writing
blog posts about my experiences in Australia.
UQ, Australia & beyond
Despite being an Economics major, I want to take advantage of the world-class and
variety of subjects offered at UQ. Therefore I've
picked out a mix of management and
computer science classes, in particular ones with a focus on cybersecurity - a
specialization which is basically non-existent across undergraduate programs in Germany.
Besides UQRTC, I want to join the UQ Cyber Squad, UQ
Fintech
club and UQ Slavic society. Having
played American football for over 5 years, I'd also love to give Aussie-style football
or rugby a try.
While I will make the most out of the opportunities offered at UQ, I also want to
explore Northern Queensland's stunning nature, such
as the Great Barrier Reef and
Whitsundays Islands, and finally see the Brisbane
Broncos take on the Cowboys at Suncorp
Stadium.
Furthermore, I'm really looking forward to the summer break between Semester 2 and
Semester 1, which is ideal for a long road trip to the West
Coast, and especially to
skipping German winter, although I already know now that I'm going to miss real
bread a
lot.
Thank you for your
attention!
I hope that I was able to give you better insights into my motivation and plans for
being GOstraya's ambassador at the University of Queensland.
I'm looking forward to hearing back to you.
If you have any more questions or want to get in touch with me, feel free to
reach
out to
me via my socials. 😊
