Meet Isabelle Rupp (@isabelle_cr ). She is Austrian-American and grew up in different countries like the USA, Jordan, Sudan, Germany and France. She is a citizen of the world!. Isabelle studied an undergraduate degree in Anthropology and Classics in the United States and was working in South Korea for a year.

In 2019, she entered the Master of Arts in World Heritage Studies at #BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg. She was one of five selected from 2020 to pursue the dual program in heritage in Germany and Australia. She travelled to Melbourne in March 2020 and experienced the first wave of #COVID19 there with her BTU colleagues.

Did heritage contribute to your life during the pandemic? Isabelle Rupp (@isabelle_cr), student of the #HeritageDualDegree, travelled from @btucs - @btuheritagestudies #Germany to #Australia when #Covid19 Pandemic started. So, she lived her exchange in @deakinuniversity, Melbourne in the middle of the first wave, following the first regulations and world lockdowns. Could heritage contribute to her daily life in these moments? Isabelle told us her experience:

“One thing that was always allowed, fortunately even during lockdowns, was being outside. So during the intrasemester break, I started walking to the beach every day from our house. It's not something I would have normally taken the time to do, but weirdly, it’s now one of my favorite memories of studying abroad in Melbourne. We were also able to get out of Melbourne and go hiking/ sightseeing a few times during the break. My favorite place we visited was Point Nepean National Park. I’d never heard of the park before traveling to Australia, but I participated in the Australia ICOMOS mentoring program while I was there, and my advisor told me about about it – right away it sparked my interest. The Park includes two historic sites: the Quarantine Station and Fort Nepean. The Quarantine station, in use from 1852 to 1980, was the initial point of entry for many immigrants arriving in Australia and was established to limit the introduction of new diseases in the country. The site’s significance bears new relevance now that words like ‘quarantine’ are part of our own contemporary vocabulary!”

Heritage and belonging as a life experience: Our Alumni Isabelle Rupp (@isabelle_cr ) has lived in several countries, and understanding this feeling of belonging to a place was one of the reasons to get hooked on #WorldHeritage. Do you want to know why? Play this video https://www.instagram.com/p/CU7n3MGFIsK/