Something that genuinely made me happy this semester: every Tuesday, after surviving a 4-hour lecture, I’d head to my Politics of Finance class, physically tired and brain drained. But then: cat memes. Every week, without fail, there were cats with every Mentimeter. Sometimes cute, sometimes hilarious, but always perfectly timed to make my chaotic, 6-hour non-stop uni day instantly better. Maybe I miss my parents’ cat. Maybe cats are just objectively superior. Probably both.

I’m Valentin Kless, and I grew up in Wiesbaden. After finishing my Abitur, I took a gap year and spent a semester in Barcelona studying Spanish culture at Universitat de Barcelona. It was a great experience and personally enriching to learn about Spanish culture and the language itself. However, at some point, I had to figure out what I want to do in the long term.  I bounced between ideas of economics, history, business, law, medicine (yes, really). Eventually, like many confused 20-somethings, I went with business and ended up at WU.

But the Core Business Courses didn’t quite resonate with me. Learning about logistics or data entry felt detached from the kinds of questions I was interested in.

But then I took Advanced and Applied Sustainable Economics and Business with Zack Zimbalist and Jonas Bunte. We weren’t just memorizing stuff anymore, we were asking why things happen, digging into puzzles, and exploring the connection between politics and economics (way more interesting than logistics).

I realized international political economy was a perfect fit for my interests, and Zack and Jonas are great teachers, which is why I decided to specialize in IPE.

This turned out to be the academic environment I had been looking for. The courses offered by Sidan and Ashley were unusually diverse in terms of skill development. We worked on everything from podcast episodes to policy memos, opinion pieces, and making short videos. I particularly appreciated the chance to write non-academic pieces like the Op-Ed, which required me to rethink my personal and political opinions and express them in an article. Also, the weekly newspaper assignments helped me to connect current events with what we have learned in class and the papers and therefore understand the bigger dynamic behind them-- whether it was Trump’s trade tariffs or China investing in Hamburg’s port.

All in all, we picked up a ton of useful skills while exploring seriously cool topics. Like, that SEZs were basically states within states. Or that stock market crashes can be linked to electoral systems. And one thing you’ll walk away with after these courses is a deep, obsessive relationship with why-questions. Every session: “What’s the puzzle?”  “What’s the Why-Question?” “What’s the mechanism?” At some point, it started to feel like the philosophy of the class, and we began to internalize it. But the weekly habit of crafting “why” questions sharpened our research focus and helped many of us start shaping ideas for a bachelor’s thesis or further studies. I want to write my thesis with the institute, and I know others do as well.

And, beyond the academic content, the specialization offered insight into possible career paths. Sidan frequently shared internship opportunities and brought in expert guest speakers, providing us with recommendations and practical advice. Meanwhile, Ashley showed us how to write memos for government agencies and private firms, as well as what future jobs could look like. Personally, it led me to continue exploring international political and economic questions both through a research-focused master’s program and, in the long run, in either academia or policy-oriented consulting.

Honestly, it might sound like I’m overselling, but it really was this positive.

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