Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Wirtschaftswissen­schaftliche Fakultät

The Buddy Program is an opportunity to promote cultural exchange and international understanding. The idea is to match an international with a local student at the beginning of the semester, and encourage them to meet, laugh, talk, listen, and participate in whatever clubs, teams or activities they wish. By doing this, an important information resource is created for both parties.

Local students are encouraged to help their International student with his/her questions before their arrival in Berlin and to pick him/her up from the airport. It can make a big difference to an international student to be greeted in a new city by a friendly face! Of course, you can decide for yourself how much time to spend with your Buddy...

We will do our best to find and match a buddy with an exchange student. Since many of the local students are interested in practicing a foreign language, we try to match according to the language the foreigner speaks. The amount of interaction and support is completely dependent on the interests of both of you. However, to avoid possible misunderstandings, we have two simple suggestions:

• Both buddy and guest agree upon and exchange an efficient contact method - telephone, e-mail, etc.
• Over the course of the semester, the buddy takes the guest to at least one social event (party, culture excursion, trip, etc.), where the majority of the students will be German students.

These suggestions are just to give you a little hint on how to get the most out of the program. At the start of every semester the International Office arranges a Buddy Welcome Meeting for the participants of the program. We will also arrange several other buddy-Stammtische and activities throughout the semester.

We hope to see you!