Christian Röser

I have carried this imprint over into all areas of my professional life to this day. Starting in the "International Education Center Witzenhausen - IBZW", founded by Michael Glamayer, I have been drawn to educational work until today. At that time we trained international European volunteers for their voluntary year in Germany on the campus. So it was not only in this small town in northern Hesse that my career as an education officer began, which led me through several stations to the founding of my own education center, but it was also there that I discovered my love of international cooperation. It was not for nothing that I chose international agricultural economics as my major field of study.

The linchpin of my development was the founding of Starkmacher e.V. in 2006 with friends. It coincided with the acquisition of my diploma. We wanted to do something ourselves to empower young people through their skills and talents and harness their potential for social development. Today, I work as an executive board member in a grown ecosystem of engagement and partnerships. Holding the reins of what we do in our own hands has become a central motivating factor for ourselves beyond the target groups. Starkmacher is something like a platform for realizing visions. We determine the topics. Combined with our expertise in applying for funding, especially from the EU, this makes for an effective mix. Throughout Europe, we are constantly addressing new topics that are of concern to us and that we would like to shape. I use this opportunity to live my passion for agriculture and rural areas. At the same time, this gives me the chance to collaborate with friends made during my studies and stay connected across national borders. Combined with my love for Latin America, beyond Europe, for example, projects to strengthen democracy through renewable energy in Argentina and addiction prevention projects as well as social entrepreneurship projects through coffee and cocoa in Brazil and Bolivia have emerged. The special spirit from the time of my studies has always guided me and the approach of organic farming has given me an important inner orientation.

When I started studying in Witzenhausen, I was not taken seriously by my peers in my social environment at that time, to be honest . Agriculture, and organic agriculture at that, was not yet a topic for science and society in 1999. Anyone who dealt with it was considered an outsider. Today, I see that teachers and students at that time were pioneers and thought ahead of social developments such as sustainability and ecology, which dominate thinking today. Moreover, it was precisely the diversity of lifestyles and opinions in Witzenhausen that left a positive mark on me. We all got along well and appreciatively on campus. The great strength of the study program was to create a field of tension out of the diversity of approaches and opinions, which brought us forward.

In Witzenhausen, I was trained to be a critically thinking, grounded person who can bring the holistic approach of organic agriculture into working life far beyond the topic of agriculture. This has made me the person I am today and shaped my career path decisively and in a positive way. I am still grateful to the professors and my fellow students today.