International – Activities at HAUS HAUS kicks off 2025: Networking and Culture for Heidelberg alumni in the USA
The US alumnae and alumni of Heidelberg University have started the year 2025 with numerous activities. The Regional Chapter Chairs and Co-Chairs of HAUS, the alumni group for alumni from and in the USA, organise the programme in the various parts of the country.
"Ring in the New Year with German University Alumni!" was the motto on 23 January in San Francisco. Heidelberg alumni in northern California accepted their university's invitation to a New Year's reception, which was organised for the seventh time in cooperation with the German Center for Research and Innovation (DWIH San Francisco), the DAAD and other liaison offices of German universities such as the Technical University of Munich, the University of Cologne and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). In addition to networking with other alumni, the participants had the opportunity to visit the SAP Labs in San Francisco, where the reception was held. Among them was Heidelberg alumna Paula Weidemüller, who has taken on the role of Chairperson of the Northern California Regional Chapter alongside Diane Guido.
The regular Virtual Kaffeeklatsch, which took place on 12 February with a digital city and university tour, met with great interest. Kristian Willenbacher from Heidelberg Student Services took the alumnae and alumni on a virtual tour and guided them – from the comfort of their screens – to familiar places in Heidelberg with plenty of humour and historical insights.
On 20 February, alumnae and alumni of the New York HAUS Chapter in Manhattan came together for a happy hour with Vice Rector Prof. Dr Marc-Philippe Weller and Heidelberg law students. Prof Weller was in New York with his students to compete with law students from other universities in oral negotiation skills at pre-moots at Fordham University. The alumni, mainly with a legal background, met up with the Heidelberg group in a centrally located bar in midtown Manhattan.
One day later and 360 kilometres to the southwest, Heidelberg alumnae and alumni were invited by HAUS to attend a networking reception at the German Historical Institute in Washington, D.C., to mark the 100th anniversary of the DAAD. The President of the German Academic Exchange Service, Joybrato Mukherjee, was also present. Incidentally, the DAAD's relationship with Ruperto Carola is a very special one: On 13 January 1925, the world's largest funding organisation for international academic exchange was founded in Heidelberg by the student Carl Joachim Friedrich.
Together with the new Consul General of the Federal Republic of Germany in New York, Till Korn, HAUS hosted an exclusive New Year's reception followed by a music concert at the German House in New York on 26 February. The alumnae and alumni took part in a performance of "The Fantasy World of E.T.A. Hoffmann and His Influence" with young musicians from the Mannes School of Music.
In addition, the Chicago Chapter met on 15 February and the newly founded North Carolina Chapter met in Chapel Hill on 29 March.