After my Master's degree in Atlantic Studies/History, Culture and Society, I completed a traineeship in television. At the end of my traineeship, I was self-employed for a short time until I started working as an editor in the Tagesschau newsroom in Hamburg. As part of my work there, I was in the ARD studio in London for the referendum/Brexit, until I was back in Germany at the beginning of July and decided to move to NDR in Hanover. This time as a writer, i.e. producing films again. I love my work. I was lucky enough to turn my passion into a profession. Even though it can be very exhausting and you can't get anywhere without a thick skin and a high stress level, I can't imagine doing anything else. The degree course prepared me excellently in this respect by giving me all the freedom I needed to ''run wild'' as a cultural journalist. The seminars on offer were often focused on film analysis. My stay at the UWI in Kingston, Jamaica, gave me the opportunity to conduct interviews and do investigative research there. My Master's thesis therefore had a strong journalistic focus. Thanks to the lecture series with various lecturers from abroad and the opportunity to study at a non-typical university abroad such as Kingston or Costa Rica, you quickly come into contact with different people from different cultures, learn another language that you might otherwise never have come into contact with (Patois in Jamaica, for example) and - as in my case - experience first-hand the 'after-effects' of colonialism in a post-colonial society. I was and still am able to draw on all this experience and knowledge in my current job. If it hadn't been for these opportunities and the openness of the lecturers during my studies, I would definitely have had a harder time.”

Nadja Babalola