Challenging circumstances once accompanied the start of the program: For the first 27 students of the TUM School of Management at the TUM Campus Heilbronn, there were still no permanently employed professors on site, no student services, and no semester ticket. When the first nine Buddies started, there was no budget available for activities. But the program developed rapidly: when the TUM School of Computation, Information and Technology came to campus in 2021, the students were included in the program. Today, the program brings together students from different departments. Buddies and Freshers are assigned to each other using a self-developed digital matching tool. Any student can become a Buddy without any further prerequisites.
During a panel discussion moderated by Dr. Rangel Trifonov, Project Manager at TUM Campus Heilbronn, program founder and coordinator Adelheid Schäfer-Terino, TUM alumni Abdelrahman Gad, student Andrea Antinori Acosta, Costanza Terino, Head of the CIT Student Service Center, and Sabrina Huber, Director School Office, shared their experiences with the program. They were very optimistic about its future development.
Schäfer-Terino then presented certificates to Amir Bouslama, who developed the matching tool for Buddies and Freshers together with Nikita Grigorev, and to Zuzana Zechovská, Program Coordinator at MGT's International Office. She accepted the award on behalf of MGT. Katja Leßke, Program Coordinator for the Master's programs at TUM in Munich, was honored as a representative of the “Undergraduate and Postgraduate Education” department.