"I Want to Underpin my Experience as an Athlete with Theoretical Knowledge"

A female athlete who plays for one of Germany’s top volleyball clubs, USC Münster, joined Wittenborg’s MSc programme in Sport Business Management this October.

Lisa Thomsen, who plays in the top division of German volleyball – the Bundesliga (Women) – will study part-time at Wittenborg while continuing her professional volleyball career. Besides being a player, she also serves duties as a team manager.

Thomsen joined other MSc students at the start of October for various orientation week activities, including sessions with lecturers from the University of Brighton in the UK who offers the programme in conjunction with Wittenborg.

“I made an agreement with my club to free up time for my studies and also drew up a schedule with Wittenborg coordinators which does not clash with matches. For the first part of my studies I will only do modules which fit into my volleyball schedule.”

Before studying at Wittenborg Thomsen did a bachelor's degree in Health Economics and also spent considerable time in the Netherlands, which includes an internship in The Hague. She speaks Dutch fluently and finds Dutch people “friendly and more open-minded than Germans, who tend to keep to rules a lot more”.

She has been playing volleyball for 25 years, of which 17 as a professional player, and envisions a career for herself in sport business management. “I have experience as an athlete and want to underpin that with theoretical knowledge.

WUP 18/10/2018

by Anesca Smith
©WUAS Press