Yulia's letter of motivation

Living to Tell the Tale is the name of the book of Gabriel García Márquez, but this idea is very close to me. My name is Yulia, and I am 30 years old. I was born and raised in Russia, however I have started to do my master in the area of expanded media in Germany.

Since childhood, my passion has been telling stories to people. Early on in my childhood, I was creating magazines for parents and neighbors. As soon as I entered school, I insisted that we need a school newspaper and started one. After graduating from Moscow State University of Printing Arts I started working as a journalist. During the time I have been working in the field of journalism, I have been on-air as a TV correspondent, a presenter, an author of TV programs, and a reporter of a business newspaper.

After 10 years of work, I realized that I am enjoying journalism but I have a strong desire to move forward and to realize my creative potential in projects of a bigger and deeper scale than journalistic reports. Also, I always dreamed to get the experience of living in another country to get a more global mindset.

That’s why I entered the Darmstadt University of Applied Science. I chose the Expanded media master program with the specialization Expanded Storyworlds, which is focusing on scriptwriting and making creative concepts for media projects. Expanded media is an ongoing trend that happens when the same topic is spread across at least two different platforms. The skills I would acquire would be useful if I would be working in media production companies and marketing agencies.

This study will give me a toolkit to tell the stories on a new level. I want to use it not only for commercial work but also to develop my personal projects. For example, I am interested in topics that cover a variety of cultures and mentalities. The process of globalization is faster than the development of peoples’ mindsets. This was easy for me to notice personally while traveling within and outside of Russia. I have been researching this topic and making an Instagram blog about it, comparing Russian mentality to others, @babushka_calls.

I have already started studying the master program remotely because of the pandemic, and in February will finish the first semester. However, the upcoming semester will be in person in Germany. I consider myself best suited for this scholarship because I am highly motivated to have the abroad life experience. This would allow me to participate in creative projects and collaborate with international students. At the same time, I would also improve my german, widen my professional network, and tell about it in social media. This journey for me is going to be an exciting story to tell, and I would love to share it through Care Concepts media. I would be happy if my experience would motivate anybody to open up and follow their dreams.