Nina Lukacs, a recipient of the 2023-24 Presidential Scholarship, is a BA student in CEU’s Culture, Politics and Society program. CEU spoke with Lukacs, who is from the United States, to learn about her studies and path to CEU.
What does this award mean to you?
I was surprised to learn about the award, and it means a lot to me, in that I imagine everyone comes into CEU feeling a little bit nervous, a little bit unsure about where everyone else is going to stand and how they're going to fit in both academically and socially. Having this scholarship reassured me in a sense that my place is here at CEU. It meant a lot to me in that regard, and I was very happy to find out I had received the support.
What was your path to CEU?
I was born in San Francisco, California, and grew up in the United States, but I'm also an EU citizen because my father is from Hungary. I knew about CEU from when I had spent time in Budapest and was aware that the university moved to Vienna. I always had CEU in mind as a possibility when I started applying to universities.
Another factor is that I knew for sure that I wanted to go abroad because I wanted the experience of living in a new country. So, in planning on going to Europe, CEU piqued my interest. Looking into the university further, I realized that I really liked the focus on a multidisciplinary education with very serious academics. The professors seemed incredibly passionate about teaching and also very strong. Looking at the kind of lectures that CEU hosts, I found the topics to be quite interesting. I ultimately decided on CEU because it offered a supportive and rigorous environment for my studies.
What are your thoughts on civic engagement?
For many years, I was an assistant teacher at a school of Kathak, which is a dance form from northern India. It taught me a lot about interacting with people from different places and the experience made me want to learn more from other cultures. So, although it's not civic engagement at, say an NGO, it was an important experience that I felt shaped my perspective about civil society.
Now I’m looking forward to expanding my German to advance another language and get more connected locally in Vienna.
What drives you in your work?
Put simply, my interest and curiosity. I really like learning. It brings me a lot of joy to discover new and interesting topics. I have a motivation to understand more and hear new perspectives. I guess I'm a huge nerd! In terms of subjects, I really love languages. I think the way people interact and the differences between languages is so fascinating.
What would you like to highlight for other students considering CEU?
With the BA program, I enjoy connecting with my classmates to see where they're coming from, what activities they've been doing, understand the differences in our education and in our viewpoints. I love the diversity here at CEU.
So far, during the first year of my studies, I’m finding that I value the intersections between various subjects. The interdisciplinary nature of the courses is great, and the possibility for creative work is also something I enjoy. Over the course of my time here in the four-year program, I’d like to see how I can translate my studies into a future path and figure out what I want to do after CEU.
The Presidential Scholars Fund was established by Michael Ignatieff and Zsuzsanna Zsohar. It supports four Presidential Graduate Research Awards for exceptional master’s and Doctoral students whose research shows promise for the next generation. The Fund also awards two scholarships per year to incoming bachelor's students demonstrating exceptional academic credentials and leadership promise.