Heike Bornemann can still remember her time at The Hochschule Niederrhein very well, even though she actively misses nothing about student life. Rather, she, who studied ecotrophology from 1987 to 1991 and has headed the ISOGM Institute for System-Oriented Health Management since 1997, enjoys the fact that she can return to the university at any time and have good conversations with employees who were already working there when she was a student. The university has become a kind of home port for her. To this day, she still maintains close friendships that were forged during her student days and for which she is very grateful; even her former study group is still in contact.
When asked what had a lasting influence on her during her student days and what is of use to her in her current work, Ms. Bornemann immediately recalls Prof. Dr. Georg Wittig and Prof. Dr. Gerhard Comelli, thanks to whom she became involved with the topics of media and psychology in nutrition therapy and counseling at an early stage. She is certain that an important foundation stone for her counseling personality was laid here and her critical and at the same time mindful, resource-oriented, multi-perspective view was trained. "Because the whole really is more than the sum of its parts," adds the certified nutritionist. In addition to studying for her studies, which she preferred to do at home, she enjoyed spending her free time back then at the Rock ́n Roll Club "Elvis" in Wickrath and at the Café "Trotzdem." When asked what was "typical student" in Ms. Bornemann's student days, she reports that activities such as playing games, cooking, baking, hiking or cycling used to be very popular among students.
She advises current students that early contact with the professional world through internships, conferences and congresses is absolutely necessary and crucial for their own career development. Only a few actually end up in the profession they imagined at the beginning of their studies. She advises staying open and using resources to start the process of actual learning and personal development after the studies, because "everything else has to grow, like a tender plant that grows and thrives on experience," Heike Bornemann emphasizes in conclusion.
