The Crister Stephen Garrett Scholarship is named after the well-known Professor for American Culture and History at the American Studies Institute of Leipzig University, who passed away in March 2019. Professor Garrett believed that international experience is central for personal and professional growth and to be successful in an increasingly globalized world. Christer S. Garrett was a popular figure in the transatlantic community and strongly supported the Global Studies programme. In the memory of Professor Crister S. Garrett, the scholarship aims to support young people in a project abroad for personal and professional development.

Mariama Diallo is a 21-years-old student of Global Studies now in her 2nd year. After her degree in Political Science from Université Saint-Louis in Bruxelles (Belgium) and a study period in Porto Alegre (Brazil), she startet the Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degree at Leipzig University in October 2019. Mariama says: „Growing up in a multicultural and multilingual environment pushed me towards experiences abroad and that is why I opted for an Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degree which facilitates and offers international learning possibilities. My choice for Leipzig and Ghent Universities was motivated by my willingness to improve my communication skills in foreign languages, namely German and Dutch, but also by their wide range of courses on African and European studies that reflect my research interests and my master’s thesis subject: return migration from Europe to Africa.“ Thanks to her excellent marks, she was awarded the Crister Stephen Garret Scholarship, for the winter semester 2020, so as to cover most of her expenses in Ghent. „I am most honored to have been selected and I am deeply grateful for this great opportunity.“

More information on the Scholarship can be found here: https://www.uni-leipzig.de/en/newsdetail/artikel/crister-stephen-garrett-scholarship-launched-2020-03-26/