Graduate Institute

From Zarqa to Rheinbach and back again

Tuesday 12 January 2021

25 years H-BRS, 10 years Graduate Institute. And we look back with a single story that says so much about the people at this university.

sawsan_jaafreh_mit_kaul_ihne_herpers_2015_foto_eva_tritschler_teasercut.jpg (DE)
From Zarqa to Rheinbach and back again.

Adventures of a Jordanian female PhD student at H-BRS

by Barbara Hillen

When the young student Sawsan Jaafreh stood in the kitchen 20 years ago preparing poultry, she had no idea that this activity would one day shape and inspire her academic career. She smelled the raw meat to make sure that it was not spoiled. The heat in her Jordanian homeland could be brutal and she had long since become accustomed to it putting an abrupt end to the anticipation of a tasty dish. But this time the breast fillets seemed to be perfect and soon sizzled in the pan.

Sawsan Jaafreh had just begun fulfilling her dream of studying chemistry at the state-run Hashemite University in her Jordanian hometown of Zarqa, just northeast of the capital Amman. Little did anyone know that the foundation of Hashemite University in 1996 had been preceded just one year before by the inauguration of H-BRS in faraway Germany.

Interested in reading more? Just click the button below and you will learn more about Sawsans way to success.