Get a Taste of the Future at the University – From 3D Printing to Funny English, There’s Something for Everyone
Thursday, April 23, 2026 - 15:18 CET
For many, this is their first Future Day at the University of Hildesheim - though some have been here before. This year, there are 13 workshops for school-age boys and girls. A total of 173 boys and girls are exploring a wide variety of career fields and are learning that there are no typical “women’s” or “men’s” jobs. They are programming, modeling, crafting, calculating, writing, and speaking. By the end, it’s clear to most of them: working at the university is exciting, fun, and thrives on cooperation.
The event begins at 8:30 a.m.: Nina Wüstemann, a representative from the Office of Equal Opportunity, welcomes the students to the forum. “The basic idea behind Future Day is that we want to break down traditional gender stereotypes.” She explains that in many Degree Programs, there is still a significant gender imbalance. This has little to do with a lack of interest, but rather with outdated assumptions about what constitutes “male” and “female” professions.
The AnkerPeers Selina and Sebastian, student advisors at the Central Student Counseling Office, highlight the differences between college and high school and answer questions. For example: “On a scale of one to ten, how much fun is university?” Both rate their studies a solid seven. “It’s fun, but it’s also exhausting,” Selina explains with a wink. Sebastian agrees.
Then the children and teenagers are picked up by their workshop leaders. In the workshop “Child and Subject—Exploring the World in Elementary School Science,” the boys, led by Tobias Kantorski, a scientific research assistant at the Institute for Elementary School Didactics and Science Education, build a water rocket. Afterward, they record an explanatory video for elementary school students. Meanwhile, a group of girls in the university’s metal workshop is crafting a candleholder out of wire, metal, and soft plastic. And in the cafeteria’s event room, 15 boys are receiving an introduction to educational science. Afterward, they walk across campus with questionnaires they created themselves and conduct their first data collection in the form of interviews.
Future Day at the University of Hildesheim is organized by Martina Melke-Harmgardt from the Office of Equal Opportunity. “We have many young people who visited us for Future Day and later returned to the university for a degree or vocational training. We give the girls and boys a glimpse into our programs, and parents and children can get to know us in a low-threshold way,” she explains.
The media coverage of Future Day by the Communications and Marketing Department is also actively supported by a Future Day participant. Elisa (14) feels encouraged in her desire to pursue a career in media later on. Who knows, maybe even at the University of Hildesheim.