The Team

DUW students benefit from Rebecca Wanzl’s eight years’ experience in counselling and supervision for working professionals in continuing education. Even as a student, Ms. Wanzl was employed by a major national continuing education institution. After receiving her degree in German and Social Sciences, she became the director of the institution’s nationwide student counselling team. “Counselling services begin long before the student decides on a specific professional development programme, and can continue after graduation,” she says. “The student counsellors at DUW answer questions on all aspects of continuing education, support working students in organizing their distance learning programmes, and accept their suggestions and requests to expand and improve the quality and service of our counselling and supervision constantly.”

Jana Rebholz holds a degree in Education with a thorough emphasis on adult and continuing education — good preparation for student counselling at DUW. During her own studies, Ms. Rebholz was also employed by a major education provider in Berlin.

“Lifelong learning is a subject I dealt with throughout my course at university,” she says. “Student counselling at DUW is the continuation of my work with educational counselling in both theory and practice. I not only support students in achieving their educational goals. Educational counselling itself, the continuous supervision of the learning process, is an important element of lifelong learning.”

After her first degree in design, Katja Bodora decided on a new career path. She started with a German distance-learning college, working in student services and counselling. Now she herself is working towards a second university degree through a distance learning course. “Working with people, and especially counselling students and prospective students, is what makes my work enjoyable,” Ms. Bodora says. “Direct communication, providing support, and the good feeling of helping people along their educational path are part of a fulfilling work day. Because I’m taking a distance learning course in addition to working, it’s easy for me to put myself in the place of DUW students: I know their needs from personal experience.”

As a chemistry and biology teacher with additional qualifications in IT and Internet development, Nicole Gerken has a great deal of experience with e-learning approaches in education. Ms Gerken sees her work at DUW, where she supervises the continuous development of  the Online Campus, as an outstanding way to combine her teaching skills with her extensive IT expertise. “I’ve always been fascinated by the possibilities of flexible, mobile continuing education,” Ms Gerken says. She recognized the importance of a modern Online Campus platform, tailored to the students’ needs, in her own experience as a distance-learning continuing education student. “Because the Online Campus is vital for the students’ daily work, we constantly develop it to provide our students optimum support.”