Helena Waldhier: A Designer with an Eye for the Big Picture

Pforzheim, situated in a picturesque location on the edge of the northern Black Forest, has always been home to people who create beautiful things. Given its long history in the jewelry and watchmaking industries, it’s no wonder the city is nicknamed the “Goldstadt” (City of Gold). One of the city’s long-established jewelry companies is the August Gerstner Ringfabrik, which has been in the Helena Waldhier family for more than 160 years. “We now have sixth-generation family members working in the company. While my aunt and uncle share management responsibilities, my mother is an authorized signatory and Head of Design,” Waldhier explains. At family gatherings, the family business has always been—and still is—the number one topic of conversation. “It always became clear from time to time just how much responsibility comes with running a family business,” notes Waldhier, who was already allowed to help out with inventory as a teenager.

To gain an initial overview of the operational processes in the family business—from design to production to distribution—she completed an internship there immediately after graduating from high school. “That’s when I got the impression that management might be the right path for me. Because from a bird’s-eye view, I didn’t just observe the processes in the individual departments—I also critically examined them,” Waldhier explains. She used the year between high school and college to gain further practical experience: On the one hand, she quickly took on a lot of responsibility in human resources at another local family-owned business; on the other hand, she continues to support her mother in her own jewelry workshop to this day by assisting with marketing and public relations or by speaking with customers at trade shows.

It stands to reason that she initially gravitated toward a degree in business—even though she occasionally entertained thoughts of studying medicine, psychology, or sociology. It was during a conversation with a friend of her mother’s that she first heard about ZU. “I still had the typical preconceptions about a private university, but those began to fade after just a quick look at the course content,” Waldhier admits. And in the same breath, she acknowledges that at first she wasn’t brave enough to choose a broad-based degree program. She wanted to play it safe and so started with the CME bachelor’s program, which focuses on economics. “But actually, I was always aware that I didn’t just want to understand the economy, but also society and the systems behind it,” explains Waldhier. The doubts that had already surfaced during the admissions interview intensified over the course of the first two semesters, so after the Zeppelin Year, she changed course and switched to the interdisciplinary SPE bachelor’s program.

“It also has to do with the fact that I’m passionate about many things and therefore wanted to take as many different courses as possible during my bachelor’s program,” Waldhier explains. However, by the time she begins her upcoming semester abroad at the University of California, Berkeley, she’ll have to narrow her focus to a single topic—since only two semesters will remain afterward, and she’ll have to write her bachelor’s thesis during the last one. “I particularly enjoyed a course on Corporate Social Responsibility and Leadership taught by Dr. Jessica Schwengber, which, among other things, explored why there are still companies that strive purely for profit maximization and neglect all other levels of society. So it’s quite possible that this topic will also be reflected in my thesis,” Waldhier reports. Her passion for numbers, in turn, brought her to the other side of the seminar room as a student teaching assistant. In her second semester, she led a math tutorial, and in her fifth semester, a macroeconomics tutorial. “My goal was to present the mathematical part in such a logical and understandable way that all my fellow students could follow the material and thus overcome their fear of math, at least to some extent,” explains Waldhier.

What she particularly appreciates about ZU—in addition to the small seminar sizes and lively discussions—is the wide variety of student initiatives: “And no sooner had they introduced themselves to us first-semester students than I was already thinking about which initiatives would suit me best and which ones I could get involved in.” For example, she was active on the marketing team for the “Startup Village by Tatendrang” initiative and currently supports the “Zeppelin MUN Society” as Head of Finance. In addition, last year she and Lisa Montigel took on overall leadership of the summer party, which was organized entirely by students. “It was incredibly important to us students to put together a celebration where the entire university community, as well as residents from the region, could come together,” explains Waldhier. “And despite the short preparation time and tight budget, our team and I managed to pull off a great event.”

Right after starting her studies, Helena Waldhier also participated in blood drives organized jointly by students and the German Red Cross (DRK). What was missing, however, was a student initiative that, among other things, provides medical support at university events and conducts first-aid workshops. So, together with her fellow student Adrian Pietzcker, she revived the “ZU First Aid” initiative. “Next, we’re planning first-aid courses for residents to further strengthen the connection between the university and the city,” Waldhier reveals.

Helena Waldhier’s interest in disaster response and emergency medical services developed before she graduated from high school. Since 2021, she has been an active volunteer with the Tiefenbronn branch of the German Red Cross (DRK), where she contributes in various areas. She is currently working as a first-aid responder for Johanniter-Unfall-Hilfe in Friedrichshafen and, through that organization, at the Southside Festival in Neuhausen ob Eck—and will soon be working as a paramedic: she is nearing the end of her training. “The idea of studying medicine still haunts me to this day. Although I continue to believe that, as a doctor, it’s almost impossible to change anything about the ailing system behind it,” says Waldhier.

Helena Waldhier was already active during her school years, even though one of her main interests lay in another area: music. “Our family life is unthinkable without music: Nearly all family members play at least one musical instrument—or even several,” Waldhier emphasizes. She remembers well how, as a child, she provided musical accompaniment with her grandfather at some Christmas celebrations—“he on the piano, I on the violin.” So she chose a high school where music plays a central role. There, she selected music as one of her senior year subjects and was active in the school orchestra, among other things. And even today, she regularly returns to her hometown to play in the orchestra at Pforzheim University. “For me, music is a place of refuge and a haven of peace—simply a wonderful balance to all the hustle and bustle of everyday life.”