Santiago Cordoba Cleves receives this year's German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) Award for International Students.

Santiago Cordoba Cleves comes from Colombia and studied Electrical Engineering at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia. After a ten-month voluntary service in England, Cordoba Cleves decided to start studying in Germany. He applied to the bilingual Electrical Engineering/Elektrotechnik degree programme at HTW Dresden, among others. "Dresden was the best of three options because the transition between English and German is very well structured here. When I arrived in Germany, I had no knowledge of German, so it was important to me to make a good transition," says the now 25-year-old.

Cordoba Cleves has now entered his seventh semester and is about to graduate. He likes studying and living in Dresden: "At the university, there is direct contact between students and professors. I also like the size of the city." To finance his studies, he works as a student assistant at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering. Here, for example, he created virtual exercises for online teaching. In addition to his studies, Cordoba Cleves is also involved in the faculty's study committees, where he contributes to the further development of the international degree programme.

Santiago Cordoba Cleves has another talent, by the way. He knows a large part of the infinite series of digits Pi: with 1684 digits, he broke the Colombian memory record on 21 September 2019, World Alzheimer's Day. With this, Cordoba Cleves says, he wants to raise awareness of this disease and show that it can be prevented through brain training.

He doesn't yet know what exactly he wants to do after his studies, but he already has an idea: "I'm very interested in renewable energies and e-mobility and would like to do a Master's degree in this field or find a job where I can help do something about climate change."

Due to his previous above-average academic achievements as well as his strong social engagement, Mr. Santiago Cordoba Cleves is a worthy recipient of the DAAD Award for outstanding international students," reads the jury's statement. The award was presented during the festive matriculation ceremony of HTW Dresden on 26 September.

About the DAAD Prize

The DAAD Prize, worth 1,000 euros, is awarded to foreign students who are completing their studies in Germany and who stand out for their exceptional academic achievements and remarkable social engagement, as well as for building bridges between countries. The prize has been awarded for more than ten years and is intended to help provide faces for the large numbers of international students at German universities and to connect them with stories. This highlights the fact that every single international student takes a piece of Germany back to their home country and leaves something of themselves in Germany - an enrichment for both sides.