Johanna Haffner

We have this running joke that every german who attends the school discovered it through this famous article in german magazine “brand eins”. I flipped through the magazine in January 2011 and I´m not kidding when I say that I immediately knew that becoming a Knowmad was the way to go. I finished school in Germany and whenever asked about my plans for the future I said that I would go to Amsterdam and attend the Knowmads Academy.
People usually were surprised that there was a school who accepted students a year in advance –  and at this point I had to confess to them that the people at Knowmads did not even know about my existence – yet.
In september I was in the neighborhood and decided to just walk into the school. I was instantly welcomed home.

Being here as a student after having thought about and dreamt of this for so long is something that makes me smile every day. I´m in the right place.
And there are more than a handful of reasons why this place feels right for me.
I had been looking for something that would allow me to learn multi-disciplinary for quite some time as I felt passionate about many things. The idea of studying only Fine Arts or only Design or only Economics or only Political Sciences or only Philosophy put me off.
I was looking for something with a more holistic approach, something that focused on what my different interests had in common. And I could not wait to get going. I was eager to do something instead of being told how I could potentially do stuff in the future.

Now I´m here, exploring the different possibilities and experiences. I feel excited about being on a journey towards an ever broadening horizon of new topics, thoughts and perspectives to encounter.
Aged 19, I´m also the youngest current Knowmad. It feels great to discover how much I can learn from my fellow students who all have very different backgrounds and stories to tell – and to discover what I can offer in return.