Kirlin Mensah had a stroke of luck, or rather double luck. For some inexplicable reason, her acceptance letter for the Deutschlandstipendium ended up in her spam folder. She almost didn’t manage to let them know in time that she was accepting the scholarship. But everything worked out in the end, and the 21-year-old student at TUM Campus Heilbronn is very grateful for this support. Since October, the Deutschlandstipendium has been helping her with her living expenses. Mensah is delighted that the Dieter Schwarz Foundation is funding her scholarship.

Silent buses, atmospheric Christmas traditions

Kirlin Mensah comes from Accra in Ghana. After three semesters of computer science at Ghana Communication Technology University, she has been studying for a bachelor’s degree in information engineering at the TUM Campus Heilbronn since September 2024. This is Mensah’s first stay in Germany, and she remembers a few culture shock moments. She is not used to the silence on buses unlike in Ghana. Or the many lights during the Christmas season. “Oh my God,” says Mensah enthusiastically and laughs. Mensah is fascinated by German Christmas traditions. Last year was her “best Christmas ever,” she says. And that’s despite not being able to celebrate with her family. Fortunately, there are video calls, but of course they are no substitute for personal contact. That’s the price you have to pay, says Kirlin Mensah.

The young Ghanaian sees her studies in Germany and the Deutschlandstipendium as a great opportunity. Even as a teenager, she was fascinated by computers. In her home country, she met German entrepreneur Christian Mehl, who runs the Dodoo Coding Club. This is a foundation that promotes programming among teenagers in particular and aims to improve the employment rate for people from Ghana. Mensah now volunteers at the Dodoo Coding Club, teaching 30 young people. She started by teaching them programming concepts such as Python, MYSQL, and Git. Later, she added German lessons, as the Ghanaian sees multilingualism as an important prerequisite for a successful future. Since Mensah began studying in Heilbronn, she has been teaching the young people online and passing on her own experiences. In addition to her academic abilities, her social commitment was likely a decisive factor in her selection as a Deutschlandstipendium recipient: the jury greatly values volunteer work.

Fascination with cloud computing

Christian Mehl, her mentor, suggested that Kirlin continue her studies at the TUM Campus Heilbronn. She enjoys the “international environment,” which also teaches soft skills such as intercultural cooperation. The campus is very well equipped technologically, not to mention its impressive architecture. She also appreciates that the professors are close by and that you can get help right away when you need it. She is also very fond of the city of Heilbronn, this “big small city,” as Mensah says. Everything you need, from schools to hospitals, is right there.

What does the 21-year-old, who likes to watch Bundesliga soccer or play chess in her free time, want for the future? She would love to stay in Germany and give something back for all she has received. She is considering a master’s degree and a career in cloud computing: Kirlin Mensah would like to be involved in moving data and applications from on-premise servers — i.e., the company’s own servers on site—to the cloud, which in turn facilitates the integration of AI. She has already worked in this field as a student assistant at the TUM Campus Heilbronn, where she supported research on AI integration in industrial software with a focus on large language models and multimodal systems.

Info box

The Deutschlandstipendium supports students who excel in academic performance and social engagement with 300 euros per month – half of which is financed by the federal government and half by companies, foundations, or private individuals. For the 2025/26 funding period, 124 students from the TUM Campus Heilbronn applied, of whom 33 were selected as scholarship recipients. Fifteen scholarship recipients are funded by the Dieter Schwarz Foundation. Contact at the TUM Campus Heilbronn: Loana.Huth@tumheilbronn-ggmbh.de (Project Manager Student Services)