Alexandra Espinosa Rojas is studying for a Master's degree in International Management. In this interview, she talks about the opportunities offered by the double degree and how family and studies can be combined.
In our "Your path to a Master's" series, we regularly introduce our Master's students in more detail and report on their reasons for choosing their very special degree course, their life in the region and their personal goals.
Alexandra Espinosa Rojas is studying for a Master's in International Management. This cooperative Master's course is the only one of its kind in Saxony and is offered in conjunction with the International University Institute Zittau at Dresden University of Technology. She is taking advantage of the double degree opportunity with the Technical University of Liberec and is the mother of two children, whom she gave birth to during her studies. A conversation about children, career and culture.
Born in the nineties, lively, loud and funny - while rocking a baby in her arms - Alexandra Espinosa Rojas talks about her International Management Master's degree while sitting at the kitchen table at her home in residence F in Zittau. Her husband and two sons, both born during her studies, live with her in one of the family rooms. The older one is one and a half, the younger one just three weeks old. Alexandra Espinosa Rojas might have a few slight dark circles under her eyes, but then she beams again as she talks about her second place of study at the Technical University of Liberec, and the brief impression of tiredness has vanished. " I actually come from Düsseldorf," says the 27-year-old. "I completed my bachelor's degree in communication and multimedia management there, which was relatively specific. I spent a long time looking for a broader, more advanced course of study," she says and came across the Double Degree in International Management at TU Dresden in collaboration with TU Liberec and IHI Zittau.
Double Degree means that you complete courses both at TU Dresden and at one of the partner universities, and if you achieve at least 30 credits here, you will receive a degree from both universities at the end of your studies.
The International University Institute Zittau was founded in 1993 as a model of joint, cross-border learning by partner universities in Saxony, Poland and the Czech Republic. IHI Zittau is above all a network institution: the student body of around 300 young people is small, but culturally diverse: over 30 nations on four continents are represented here. The advantages of a small graduate university: concentrated, yet personally supported and networked study in small groups. IHI Zittau has been a central scientific institution of TU Dresden since 2013. "However, I didn't realize that Zittau is further away from Dresden than I thought - and also how small it is here."
Alexandra Espinosa Rojas loves the cross-border Central European Campus Neisse/Nisa. She drives the twenty minutes to the Czech Republic several times a week. She takes basic courses in Polish and Czech and thinks it is important to be able to at least roughly communicate in the neighboring countries. Internationality plays a major role in her life: her husband is Colombian. They got to know each other while salsa dancing in Düsseldorf. And came to Zittau together. Their children are growing up bilingual, "we definitely want to live abroad one day," she says clearly. Perhaps in Latin America. After completing her bachelor's degree, Alexandra Espinosa Rojas worked as an area manager at Amazon Logistics, where she managed a team of 80 employees. English, Spanish - no problem for her. It goes without saying that she then also connects with the neighboring countries at the Zittau site; she says her circle of friends consists mainly of Polish and Czech students. During her studies, however, she meets very different nationalities: students from India, Nepal and Latin America. "I love mastering challenges together in international teams, but also solving conflicts that arise due to the different cultures."
She became pregnant twice during her Master's degree. She is now about to write her Master's thesis, so of course it wasn't possible to continue studying with a child, but in the end it was often easier than she thought. When there was once a Halloween party in the Dezibar, Alexandra Espinosa Rojas was even able to run down from her dorm room, dance and dash back to her first-born to breastfeed - "super practical", she laughs. She also enjoys the small-town atmosphere more now than before the children. "Everything is close, the distances are short. At the examinations office, everyone supported me and understood that I would apply for a semester off or postpone something because of the children - but the joy is always great when I bring the baby with me, that's how close and familiar it is here in Zittau." Sometimes other students looked at her strangely as a pregnant woman, especially international male students. But Alexandra Espinosa Rojas has such a sunny and strong disposition, she wants to have a career and at least four children: she certainly won't be intimidated. "I was able to combine all the goals I had with this degree!"
Text: Sophie Herwig
