Piedmont Virginia community college is where Martin Hohoff started his studies here in the United States. Now, he is attending University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia and this is what he has to say. “When I came to McIntire to University of Virginia (UVA) it took some time for me to get acquainted with it then after a while I got pretty much use to it and I enjoy it,” he says.
Here at Charlottesville at UVA you have a great mixture.First, of all you have a lot of tradition, you have a very nice campus, you are not far from DC, you are not far from Virginia Beach, you are not far from the mountains,” he says. “It is a very nice atmosphere and the town here it is a very good place to study and to focus and also to meet new people and make new friends,” he says.
“The faculty they really care about you.They always help you if you need help.At anytime you can come by to their office and if you don't like cold weather it is the place to be because it doesn't get too cold and it is really helpful in general.” Martinkeeps busy with his heavy business course load, but he also finds time to be involved in a few campus organizations as well as active in the community.“My major is Commerce and my concentration is Finance and Accounting and I am a member of the McIntire Investment Institute which is basically a club that teaches any ideas for buying stocks. Then, as well in the community, I have been coaching the step high school soccer team, the goal keepers for some time.I played soccer for the UVA law school and that is my involvement in the community and at UVA.” Since being in the United States Martin has taken the opportunity to see a few other states.“I've been to Texas and I just did in the summer a road trip to Maine and New Hampshire and went down to Boston and New York and Washington.So like the East coast up a little bit and I would love to see California and Illinois Chicago also Georgia.” A hands on education versus theory Martin says is one of the things he likes about going to UVA.“I am originally from Germany from Wiesdaden, a town near Frankfurt on the River Rhine and in Europe traditional universities I don't know how to explain that it is very theory base.Okay very theory base and in the United States it is a little bit more hands on. You know at the McIntire School of Commerce it's not so much about like theory or historical aspects, its more about like current stuff the commerce school prepares us for international banking or jobs like this and that means we have to do a lot of work,” he says. “It's more about writing analysis's, current stuff things that are important in the business world today and unfortunately that doesn't happen too much at European universities in general.So, this is one reason why I think studying in the United States is very important for me,” he says. “Another reason would be the United States is leading in the world of Business and I just wanted to get a great experience here and good studies.” Martin graduates in May 2010. A very important motto for him is ...”I personally think like you have your ups and downs and for me like a very important motto that I was taught by my mother when I was younger is to never give up and still hope and fight and I thinkwith this motto the same is for me like at school when I came here there were tough times for me and McIntire is a very competitive school that got ranked number one by Business Week and it is very tough in the beginning to adapt especially if you come from a community college, but this is something that I've implemented even if it is very tough it works.”
