On December 01, 2011 Ms. Melissa Valladares Schlesinger, student of the International Agribusiness and Rural Development (IARD)-program has in presence of Dr. Uwe Muuß (Göttingen International) been awarded with the DAAD-price 2011.



The DAAD price is awarded every year to international students at the Georg-August University of Göttingen, which study with an excellent academic performance. Ms. Valladares Schlesinger was born in Guatemala and studies in the joint IARD-program of the Universities of Göttingen and Talca since 2010. Within the program, Ms. Valladares could show excellent academic scores, actually Ms. Valladares works on her MSc-Thesis on the trade barriers in the Coffee-production in Guatemala. Since her parents work in the Coffee-sector, she can connect her methodological skills with her solid background knowledge. Besides her academic performance, Ms. Valladares showed a lot of social action and engagement and a profound interest in the host country Germany. "From the very beginning, we could see Melissa's interest in the German language and culture, which was outstanding" says Prof. von Cramon-Taubadel, the speaker of the IARD-program. This intercultural competence, which can be gathered in foreign countries and which is explicitly intended and promoted by means of language courses and training from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), can be a key qualification on the labor market. Ms. Valladares Schlesinger plans to finish her studies in April 2012

The official press release of Georg-August University Göttingen