50 Years 50 Faces
Maria Grünewald
University Translator (Department of Public Affairs and Communications), as of Aug. 2021: Chair of the General Staff Council
At FHWS since Jan. 2015
For me, FHWS is ...
my workplace and far more than I could express in a single sentence.
What do you appreciate about FHWS?
I appreciate the diversity of disciplines and characters encountered at FHWS.
What was the best decision in your professional career and why? What has changed since then?
In my perception, “career” implies a certain amount of planning, considerations – a goal for which you are striving in the professional sense. During my student and professional life, I never really made decisions with my career in mind – much to my mother’s chagrin. A lot was determined by chance and/or my interests, and by the circumstances under which I was living at the time – which have given me opportunities I have seized without hesitation and into which I have invested my whole heart. I have always followed my gut feeling. When it indicates a “Yes”, I follow it and just see where it leads me. Without this attitude towards life, I’m sure, I wouldn’t have come that far, being a humanities graduate. There are hardly any job positions available outside the academic sector. Looking at the greater picture, I don’t have any regrets.
What do you think has shaped FHWS the most over the last 50 years?
Over the few years since I’ve been working here, it seems that internationalisation has shaped FHWS the most. Thanks to internationalisation, I have also found my job as university translator – by the way, one of the first permanent positions as a translator at a Bavarian university.
Who would have thought 50 years ago that one day, the facility managers at a university of applied sciences would explain students the directions to the lecture rooms in English, that student management would require bilingual forms, that lecturers would provide teaching material in German and English and hold exams in English?
It always fascinates me that people from Mauritius or other countries we only know from holiday catalogues decide to study at FHWS. That’s what shapes our every-day lives at FHWS.
What is your vision of the future for FHWS? What might FHWS look like in 50 years’ time?
I work as university translator and in the staff council – both positions provide support to teaching and research at FHWS. From that point of view, I don’t dare to give any verdicts about the future of teaching.
However, I believe that the steep hierarchical structures inherent to the public service sector will gradually play a less important role and possibly become flat later on – making no exception in the science-support sector. I also envision that institutions of higher education will have received sufficient basic funding, resulting in a less stressful work environment for employees, which today still have too much work and too less colleagues.
What is your insider tip for the cities of Würzburg or Schweinfurt and why?
It seems like it will still take me quite a while to visit the locations only known to insiders. However, when I have a cappuccino in the morning near the sandpit lake in Schweinfurt, or go on a walk along the weir system or through the wildlife park – these are the moments that make me think that Schweinfurt is really an underrated place to be.