At the Top of Her Game
In March this year, 57,000 people packed into Hamburg’s Volksparkstadion to watch Hamburger Sport-Verein (HSV) take on northern rivals Werder Bremen in the semifinal of the German Cup. It was a record attendance for a women’s club football match in Germany and in the thick of the action was KLU Master in International Management student and HSV defender, Jana Braun.
“It was amazing,” says Braun, who plays right back for HSV, of the experience. “We'd never played in front of that many people – the biggest attendance we’d had before that was around 20,000 - so it was pretty exciting. All the fans were cheering everything we did. It was an amazing feeling knowing that so many people support the us and the club.”
In the end, Braun's team lost 3:1 to Werder, who were beaten by Bayern Munich in the final. The disappointment has since faded - at the beginning of May, HSV secured promotion to the first women's Bundesliga with a 3-0 win against SC Freiburg II.
Juggling Sport and Studies
On top of the rigors of playing professional football, with its grueling practice sessions, frequent travel, and pressure of putting in good performances on the pitch, 27-year-old Braun has to balance her master’s studies and her role as a working student job at data gathering firm Statista.
It’s a lot to juggle, but Braun, who won an academic scholarship to study at KLU on the back of an excellent grade point average while studying and playing college soccer at Providence College in Rhode Island in the US, says she has managed with KLU’s support.
“KLU has helped me throughout my studies in terms of scheduling conflicts,” the native of Spaichingen, near Lake Constance in the south of Germany, explains. “For some courses that were mandatory to attend, I couldn't stay for the entirety of the course and had to leave for practice. So, the sports affairs manager at KLU, Johannes Dietz, was communicating that with all the professors before the semester started and I was able to leave earlier and get the recorded sessions afterwards. It helped me a lot.”
The personal contact for athletes on sports and academic scholarships at KLU, Dietz liaises with students to identify overlaps of their studies and sports. “If it is necessary, we individually find a solution-oriented and flexible design of the student’s timetable and exams,” he elaborates. “I also always have an open ear for any of their concerns.”
KLU: The Right Choice
In the second year of her master’s and currently writing her thesis, which is “in the context of professional football”, Braun says that she chose KLU because she wanted to do her master’s in Germany in English, having done her bachelor’s degree in the US.
“After researching and talking to different people, I really liked the idea of studying in Hamburg at KLU,” she explains.” I like that it's a smaller school, so our classes are pretty small and all the professors know you personally. Then, obviously, it's also cool that we have people from all over the world, so you get to meet different kinds of people, which is super interesting.”
Unsurprisingly, given Braun’s history of success in the classroom and on the football field, she’s excelled at KLU and is on the Dean’s list as one of the university’s top students.
Fostering Careers
“Competitive athletes have a number of qualities and skills that play an important role not only in sports but also in their studies and in their professional careers,” says Dietz on KLU’s support of student athletes. “Discipline, personal responsibility, determination, the ability to work in a team, leadership qualities, time management and resilience are sought-after virtues in all areas and facilitate personal progress. Therefore, KLU offers a targeted scholarship program for top athletes, offering 25%, 50% or 100% tuition reductions depending on their levels.”
In addition to soccer, she would like to pursue a career in management consulting after completing her dissertation. In order to concentrate fully on this goal, Jana Braun has decided to end her career in professional sport at the end of the season. “At one point you have to decide between football and a normal career because you cannot pursue both,” she explains.
If the past is anything to go by, it seems overwhelmingly likely that whatever career path Braun takes, it will enjoy the same outstanding success her academic and sporting endeavors have.
More information:
- HSV-Verteidigerin Jana Braun: Aufstiegsfeier mit ihren Omas? (Hamburger Abendblatt, 16. April 2025, in German)
- More Info about KLU Sports
- Study the same program as Jana: Master in International Management at KLU
