Germany mi amor

As Gabriela Arias Bravo says, “looking back, it was probably luck, or it could well have been fate”. For she believes in fate, she says with a grin. The Ecuadorian graduated from her Bachelor’s degree course in culture and media education at the college of education in Ludwigsburg in 2014, then immediately applied for a Master’s degree course there. However, as the same course being offered at the h_da also sounded enticing, she also applied for a place here. She admits that should she have remained in Ludwigsburg, this would have been down to “convenience”. However, in the event, she was turned down there and accepted at h_da. Fortunately, as mentioned.

“I like Darmstadt, the city itself really surprised me”, explains Gabriela Arias Bravo. She knew there were lots of students here, and that the city is renowned for its culture and Art Nouveau. She also appreciates the city’s compactness for a ‘small, major city’. After all, Frankfurt and its airport were near as well, which really appeals to her, “because I regularly visit my family in Ecuador”. However, she only found out that the media and economy campus of h_da is located in Dieburg after she arrived. She admits that “at first this startled me”. Yet the daily commute soon became routine. Aged 23 year old at the time, she moved into a shared flat in the Martinsviertel district. “I lived in Darmstadt and studied in Dieburg.”

Sole international student on her degree course

In 2015, the young woman from South America was the only international Student on her Master’s degree course in Dieburg. But she was already used to this, for things were no different down in Ludwigsburg. Traditionally there are fewer foreign students in cultural and media fields, than there are studing natural sciences or engineering degree courses. It was basically all the same to Arias Bravo, because, as she explains “I already felt myself to be practically German anyway”.

She enrolled at the German school in Cuenca in southern Ecuador aged 13. Her elder sister had previously arrived in Germany to stint as an au-pair, then stayed on to study politics in Freiburg. Although her sister had taught her some German, she still found learning the language at the school a challenge at first. However, following two months of private tuition, to fill the basic gaps, she had attained the same skills level as her fellow pupils. As she recalls: “Earlier I’d really loved learning English, but then the German language bug hit me. From then onwards I developed an entirely different feeling for language whenever I conversed with others in German.

A culture centre in Ecuador

When she was 18, Gabriela Arias Bravo travelled together with other pupils on an exchange visit to the outskirts of Ulm. “I felt almost like a different person there, far more confident in many ways than I was back in Ecuador.” Afterwards, she’d made up her mind: “I really wanted to return – for a longer period”. Languages, art and the theatre had fascinated her since adolescence, and now she could visualize studying a course in this field in Germany. Her dreams began to crystallize: “afterwards I aimed to return to Ecuador and set up a culture centre”.

In Darmstadt the young student specialized in digital media. Most of her fellow students had previously taken their Bachelor’s degree in online journalism. “I was the only one of us with a background in the media pedagogical field.” She really enjoyed her studies and working in and with different media formats. “We were a small group of only around 12 students.” Arias Bravo loved the practical training sessions and the close contact to various supervisors. “I was always able to find someone to ask things directly.” During her third semester, she gave lectures on her experiences studying for a Bachelor’s degree in online journalism as an international Student, and also worked as a tutor. It was her professor who brought a job vacancy advertisement at the Student Service Centre at h_da to her attention. A great fit, leading her to work as a student member of the centre, advising international students during 2016 and 2017, alongside her Master’s degree course.

From out of an orientation phase emerges a full-time position

Once she graduated her Master’s degree in 2017, she applied, successfully, for a full-time position at the Student Service Centre (SSC), she grasped at the opportunity with both hands. “I was in an initial phase of orienting myself in the professional world.” Given a temporary contract initially, she began working as an online editor. “It was a lot of fun, and really opened up the creative side in me.” She managed to effectively combine her online work with giving advice at the SSC – which is what she has been engaged in a permanent position since 2018. The Ecuadorian focuses mainly on taking care of the international students arriving at h_da. Her own experiences as a student in Germany are useful, as they underpin the advice she offers with an air of authenticity. As she says “I’ve lived through it all myself and know what’s going on, enabling me to convey a completely different style of empathy.” Students identify her as South American by dint of her name, leading to them frequently addressing her in Spanish from the outset. “This naturally helps when we have complex issues with the authorities to contend with.” In the meantime she has specialized in advising on rights of residence matters. Which matters must international students heed when they arrive in Germany, and what is the best way to approach the aliens’ department? “I’m able to allay their anxieties”, says Gabriela Arias Bravo. As a result of the pandemic, the majority of her office hours consultations are conducted via telephone or video conference. Yet in her experience this often proves to be somewhat easier than in person, “the obstacles to offering advice are a lot lower”.

An application for naturalisation is submitted

The South American hasn’t seen her own family – parents and two other sisters – over the past two years. Plans were made during the summer of 2020 for a visit to Ecuador lasting several weeks, but then came Covid, meaning she was no longer able to fly. “But we remain in contact via video a lot.” In the meantime, her older sister now lives in Denmark together with her husband, whom she hopes to be able to visit once more during 2021.

April 2021 marks the tenth year that Gabriela Arias Bravo has lived in Germany. “I feel so happy and privileged to be able to live here.” She has even submitted an application for naturalisation. “I’d be over the moon if my application was to be granted in time for this anniversary!” In the meantime she now lives together with her boyfriend in an apartment in Griesheim. And what of her dreams of setting up a culture centre in Ecuador? She laughs, and says she may well return, some day. “Ecuador is my home country and the culture centre is my lifetime project – but I might still be a bit too young for it yet.”

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