Medical student Nazarii Lishchuk receives DAAD prize
For his social and intercultural commitment as well as his academic achievements, Nazarii Lishchuk receives this year's DAAD prize of the German Academic Exchange Service. Since 2019, the Ukrainian-born student has been studying human medicine at the University of Münster. At a ceremony held as part of the "Welcome Night" for new foreign students, Prof. Michael Quante, Vice-Rector for Internationalization, Knowledge Transfer and Sustainability, presented the award at Münster University's Botanicum and emphasizes: "The award is particularly close to my heart because it sends the right signal in the right place. As an ambassador for international understanding, for peace and for some optimism, Mr. Lishchuk deserves special thanks." The DAAD prize for outstanding achievements of international students studying at German universities has been awarded for over ten years now and comes with prize money of €1,000 per university.
Despite his intensive medical studies and part-time student jobs in ambulant healthcare service and at the Institute of Anatomy, Nazarii Lishchuk shows a wide range of social commitment and engagement. He has been supporting the "MediSupport-International" project for several semesters in order to accompany other foreign students through their medical studies. Furthermore, at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, he was involved in the project of the "Kommunale Krankenhilfe-Einrichtung" of the city of Münster for COVID patients. Nazarii Lishchuk contributes his excellent knowledge of German as a volunteer interpreter for Ukrainian and Russian at the City of Münster in the language mediation pool of the Municipal Integration Center, at the "Arbeiter-Samariter-Bund Regionalverband Münsterland e. V.", and in the support of Ukrainian children with kidney disease and their families at the University Hospital Münster. Since March 2022, he has also been offering a free online intensive German course for Ukrainian refugees and is currently planning a course in which he will teach medical terminology to Ukrainian physicians who have fled.
The aim of the DAAD prize is to give faces to the many international students at German universities and link them with their stories. This illustrates that each international student takes a piece of Germany back to their homeland when they return and also leaves something of themselves in Germany – thus enriching both sides. The students who have received this prize via their respective host institutions stand for their fellow students from all around the world. They are Germany’s future partners in economics, politics and science.