German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) /Foreign Office prize supports international students in Germany.
For the third year, the Hertie School presented the DAAD Prize on behalf of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) to one of its international students. The 2017 DAAD Prize was awarded to Patrick Sullivan, who joined the MPP programme in 2016, in recognition of his academic record and commitment to the Hertie School community.
The DAAD Prize is awarded by universities in Germany to honour an international degree-seeking student who has excelled academically and shown remarkable social or intercultural engagement. The prize money of 1000 euros is financed by the German Foreign Office.
Patrick is originally from the US and holds a Bachelor of Education from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He serves on the leadership board as the Hertie Student Association’s social representative. In this capacity, Patrick has shown exceptional commitment and has worked tirelessly to enable student-led events and initiatives; he was the coordinator for most of the student activities of this year’s Orientation Week. Above and beyond his role as HSA social representative, Patrick ensured a smooth transition between the old and new HSA board and has motivated other students to play an active role in the Hertie School community.
“He shaped the Hertie School community with his open-mindedness, sociability, creativity and reliability,” said Hertie School President Helmut K. Anheier at the presentation of the award on 14 November. “When initially applying for the MPP, Patrick was described in a reference letter by his former employer as ‘a veritable hurricane of positive energy and knowledge’, ‘an authority figure who is entirely approachable’ and ‘one of the people other faculty would go to in order to gain insight on certain aspects of student body culture’. It is probably not so easy to live up to these expectations but Patrick really did.”