Award for special organizational talent

Culture and identities, statehood, communication and politics - Riccarda Svarovsky is permeating every level of society with her Master's degree in Management of Social Change in Görlitz. She is about to start her final semester, is 24 and has just arrived from Bischofswerda. She commutes a lot between Görlitz and her home town. She is still well connected there: Friends, family, work. In Görlitz, she lives "conveniently", as she says, in a room in a hall of residence. "I go home often and my life mainly takes place in Bischofswerda." She lives with her parents there and enjoys her home and family environment. She is nevertheless successful in her studies in Görlitz - her home town will also play a major role in her Master's thesis. The former cultural center of Bischofswerda is to be given a new lease of life through a structural change project. Riccarda Svarovsky can well imagine this topic in her Master's thesis. But she hasn't got that far yet.

She has been a member of the student committee since the first semester, is committed to her matriculation, passes on feedback, organizes, clarifies and writes in WhatsApp groups. She is the student body spokesperson and very active in her degree program. For the upcoming poster presentation, an examination for her degree course, it is Riccarda Svarovsky who informs the janitor of the number of chairs, checks the room again and collects the media key. "Someone has to do it, I'm well organized, it suits me," she says. Sometimes she asks herself, if she didn't do it, who would? All the small steps, all the details, arranging appointments, group communication, everything you can't see from the outside - Riccarda Svarovsky loves doing it. She is often thanked by her fellow students and the head of the degree program. And that is important to her.

She keeps herself organized with an analogue calendar, notes and reminder apps on her cell phone when she is out and about. "Better safe than sorry," she says. Here and there, she has been told by the head of the degree program: "Make sure you don't do too much. Riccarda Svarovsky says: "I'm also bad at saying no." And laughs, as if her talent for organization is a little quirk that she will eventually shake off. She learned early on how to organize many people into a structure. Through the Catholic church in Bischofswerda, she already had responsibility from the 9th grade. For two years, she was the main organizer of the Religious Children's Weeks, where she had to structure 80 children and 30 helpers and, above all, offer the children a good time. For many years, she was also a member of the Bautzen deanery youth helper group, an organizational body for Catholic youth in the deanery. However, this workload was no longer compatible with the start of her studies. "I can't be everywhere," she says.

And what else does she do, the pragmatic, highly organized 24-year-old student from Bischofswerda? Is there still room for a private life? She has rediscovered reading for herself. She used to enjoy reading a lot, but at some point she lost the hobby. Since Corona, she has returned to books and has been reading in a completely new genre - New Adult. These are novels that deal with love, friendship, self-discovery and growing up. The protagonists are mostly young adults who face major challenges and have to prove themselves in difficult situations. Riccarda Svarovsky follows the book talk about the latest publications via TikTok.

Riccarda Svarovsky was already well prepared for her Master's degree in Görlitz. She previously studied her Bachelor's degree in Political Science at Chemnitz University of Technology. So she had already heard of sociology when she was in her first semester in Görlitz, which was a large part of her undergraduate studies. Riccarda Svarovsky says that her internship, which lasted 400 hours, was very practical and intensive, in contrast to her previous work at Chemnitz University of Technology, and she did it in a pharmacy in Bischofswerda, where she still works today. She mainly supported the management as an assistant with her organizational skills and in public relations. She is still employed there on a mini-job basis and has accompanied a still secret structural change funding project to the ministry. "Unfortunately, I'm not allowed to talk about it yet," she says. She is looking forward to even more management topics in her final semester. She doesn't know exactly what she'll do afterwards, but it probably won't be research. She's too practical for that.

Text: Sophie Herwig