Kozminski Insider, Student Profile 07 jul 2016
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Student Ambassador – Roman Wiethoff

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A few words from our International Student Ambassador – Roman Wiethoff

Since September I am study at Kozminski University in Warsaw and I am very happy about my decision to study and live in Poland. In the following sentence I want introduce my self and explain why I chose Kozminski University.

Roman

 

My name is Roman Wiethoff, and I’m from Germany. Before I came to Koźminski University, I studied for my bachelor’s degree in Cologne, specializing in Banking and Finance. During this time, I completed an internship program at Commerzbank in corporate banking, and afterwards, I had the chance to live abroad for six months doing an internship in Hong Kong at Hamburg Süd, which I really enjoyed. Here, I had the opportunity to work with people from a variety of different cultures, which proved a very interesting experience, especially since it was my first time in Asia. After I came back to Germany, I completed another internship, this time in Düsseldorf – in an M&A Advisory. These experiences proved extremely interesting, but it also made me realize that I ought to broaden my knowledge in the field of corporate finance.

 

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I looked for a master’s program abroad that taught a practical approach, and after some time, I came across Kozminski University in Warsaw. I chose to study here due to the prestigious ranking of its Finance program – it received a high rating in the Financial Times, and – more importantly – it’s one of the few universities in Europe with a triple crown accreditation (AACSB, AMBA und EQUIS). – a prestigious worldwide business school classification. What also made me choose Koźminiski, is the fact the environment is so international. The students here come from different countries, from all over the world. Not only that, but even the professors come from abroad, or at least have longstanding international business and teaching experience.  For example, this semester we have Venture Capital by the Venture Capitalist Mr Pierre Suhrcke who worked 18 years in the Investment Banking at the Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt and London and now he is Board Member & Chairman of the Private Equity Funds Acorus Capital, who is focus on the African Market. His topics are very often brand new and were often just announced the night before on a tech event in New York such as “Viv” or published in the morning on LinkedIn such as “the businesses assumptions mistake of challenger bank Number26” and its implications and potential solutions.

 

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Another great aspect of Kozminski’s internationalism is that when you study here, you are eligible for a student exchange program, as the university cooperates with centres of education all around the world – you can even participate in a dual degree program with other prestigious European universities.  In my case – the Master of Finance  students have the opportunity to study in Porto for a year. After completing the course, they not only receive a  Koźminski master’s degree, but also a master degree from the Porto University of Economy (FEP).

What’s more, this year, the Koźminski University received CFA recognition – this means that the master’s program has been formally acknowledged as incorporating 70% of CBOK’s (Candidate Body of Knowledge) Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) program. This further reflects the exceptional quality of the program.

 

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As I mentioned above, the course I am attending is more practical than theoretical – the majority of the professors and lecturers have longstanding business experience, and we work on real Harvard Business School cases, used by the best Universities and Business schools around the world and have a very particle approach), cases. Most of these courses are in the form of seminars – in our corporate finance, for example, we use Excel to build valuation models. We also practice presentations, assignments, and case studies.  Of course, like any university we have exams, but these too are very practical – most of them are taken on computers, and involve real-life business situations, thus fully preparing us for the post-graduate world.

Asides from my University, I’d like to briefly mention Poland’s largest city, where I have the pleasure to reside – also outside of my studies. Warsaw is a very modern European capital, and to me. The difference being, however, is that every large corporation, bank, and consulting company have an office here. The city centre is filled with skyscrapers covered with corporate logos, such as EY, KPMG, Goldman Sachs, Samsung, and so on. This shows that asides from an excellent university, the city also offers very interesting career options.

The culture of the city is also quite astounding – what particularly strikes me is the fluid mixture between the modern, and the historic. For example, the Polin Museum of Judaism in Poland is really fascinating, depicting the Jewish history of the country in a really interesting, tangible manner. Asides from the history, I really like nature here, especially the Lazienki Park. This is a royal garden, once belonging to the King of Poland, and boasts stunning nature and architecture, unique on a European scale. Also, I couldn’t possibly omit Poland’s greatest composer – Frédéric Chopin. I really enjoy listening to the piano concerts at the Chopin statue in the park – it’s such a relaxing way to spend an afternoon away from my studies.  All in all, I love living in Warsaw, and recommend it to anyone – if you don’t have the opportunity to study here, at least come for a short visit, you definitely won’t regret it!

You can ask me anytime, just text me rwiethoff@kozminski.edu.pl

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