Viviana Menzel[1] is co-organizer of JoomlaDay Germany, a member of Joomla’s CMS Maintenance team and, together with Christiane Maier-Stadtherr, team leader of the Frontend Template Working Group. Would you like to know how this Argentinian biology graduate ended up in Germany building websites for a living? Read her story below!

 

Thanks for participating in this interview, Viviana! Could you introduce yourself?

“Hi, my name is Viviana Menzel, I’m 48 years old and I was born and raised in Córdoba, Argentina. I studied biology and during my thesis, my tutor told me that he wanted to send me to Germany to do my PhD. Germany and the German language (I was bad at learning languages) were not really in my plans, but he insisted so long that I started a German course. In 1997 I graduated from the university and I applied for a scholarship from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), and I got it! I got the decision in April 1998 and I left Argentina in June! My scholarship included a German course at the Goethe Institute for 4 months where I learned a lot. It was a great time because I got to meet people from all over the world.

In October 1998 I started with my PhD research in Giessen (near Frankfurt).

The plan was to stay here for a maximum of two years (it was a so-called 'sandwich scholarship', research in Germany, write the thesis in Argentina), but it came differently. My tutor offered me another scholarship to stay longer and graduate in Germany. And I fell in love with someone who is now my husband and father of our 3 children.

Shortly before the birth of our daughter, I abandoned research.”

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