“Today is a special day for you. You are celebrating your graduation! And you have worked hard for it,” said Prof. Dr. Eva Waller, president of the Hochschule RheinMain (HSRM), welcoming 57 graduates of the Faculty of Applied Social Sciences. The graduation took place at the Dorint Pallas Hotel in Wiesbaden last Friday. The students attended with their families. “From a community of students, you are stepping into 'an even larger community of graduates and academics and into a world that needs you more than ever,” emphasized President Waller. She went on to point out the good career prospects: ”At a time when AI and technical progress has many people worried about losing their jobs, you have future-proof job prospects that offer many opportunities.”

Job prospects with social responsibility

In her welcoming address, the Dean of the Faculty of Applied Social Sciences, Prof. Dr. Kathrin Witek, also emphasized the relevance of the graduates' future roles: “You have chosen a profession that stands for the fight against inequality and for social justice, at a time when our society's shift to the right is increasingly threatening human rights and democracy.”

Another welcome address was given by Dr. Patricia Becher, head of the Department of Social Affairs, Education and Housing of the City of Wiesbaden, who expressed her gratitude for the intensified cooperation between the Social Welfare Department of the City of Wiesbaden and HSRM. This has resulted in professional exchanges, internships and entry-level positions, as well as collaborations such as the joint preparation of the history of the Wiesbaden Youth Welfare Office for its 100th anniversary.

Presentation of the Henriette Fürth Prize

After the welcoming remarks, Prof. Dr. Lotte Rose, managing director of the Gender and Women's Research Center of the Hessian Higher Education Institution (gFFZ), presented the 2024 Henriette Fürth Award to Inola Kangni Soukpe for her bachelor's thesis “Empowerment of Black Girls in the Context of Social Work: Conception of a Project week on Intersectional Discrimination and Empowering Safer Spaces”.

The gFFZ prize has been awarded annually for the past 20 years for the best theses in gender research at Hessian universities for applied sciences. Inola Kangni Soukpe is the fifth student to receive the award for a thesis written at HSRM. In her laudatory speech, Prof. Dr. Rose praised “the very sharp, clear anti-racist and gender sensitive perspective, coupled with the competence and acumen of a reflective practice development”, for which the work had received a unanimous vote by the panel of judges.

The ceremony, moderated by Prof. Dr. Julia Hahmann and Natalia Mastel, was accompanied by Applied Music Mash, a band made up of teachers, students, alumni and friends of the Faculty of Applied Social Sciences. The student representatives of the Faculty of Applied Social Sciences made everybody laugh by reciting an AI-generated poem about the soul of social work.