Ronja Kötzer is a fresh face at Social Impact Award (SIA) International. She recently joined our team as Communications Support to take communications for SIA Austria and SIA Germany to the next level.

We sat down with her and spoke about her journey before SIA, what motivated her to apply, and what she’s most excited about in her new role. She was kind enough to also share her most embarrassing professional experience, which involves one of the most important women in the world. We hope you enjoy the conversation!

Let’s start from the beginning. Where are you from, and how did you end up at Social Impact Award? 

I grew up in Stuttgart, in Germany, and moved to Passau for my studies. Passau is quite small so I knew everyone and was in this great little “student bubble”. I really enjoyed it but was looking to expand my horizons, so I moved to Berlin and did an internship at the German parliament. 

Coming from the countryside, Berlin was a bit too crazy for me. I applied to study in Vienna and have been here since October. I came across the opportunity to join SIA shortly after moving and the rest is history!

What motivated you to be a part of the SIA international team as Communications Support? 

I want to empower people to do good around them. Our world is very broken, so I think it’s important to give young people opportunities to see that making a change doesn’t have to be complicated. SIA walks people through their first experiences in this field, showing them how to make a difference. I really believe that every venture has the potential to make an impact on a large scale, and this belief is what motivated me to join SIA. 

What excites you most about this new experience? 

I’m most excited about exploring our community. SIA is the biggest community of young social entrepreneurs in Europe, and I’ve never experienced anything like it before. Getting to connect with young people from around the world is a unique opportunity. Many members of the community are one step ahead of me in social impact work, so I’m looking forward to learning from them. 

My work is mostly focused on Austria and Germany, so I’m also looking forward to understanding the differences between the two ecosystems and learning more about what makes youth in both countries unique. The two countries are so geographically close and the language is pretty much the same, but people are still very different. What do their ideas and their plans for the future look like, and how different are they? 

Let’s switch gears a little bit. The world wants to know, what’s an embarrassing fact about you? 

I’m quite a clumsy person, so I fall and make things fall quite often, especially in front of other people. My worst bout of clumsiness, however, was when I spilled coffee on Angela Merkel’s shoes while working at the German parliament. I was tasked with giving someone next to her coffee and accidentally made some fall on her shoes. It was very embarrassing, but nothing bad came from it!

Want to know more about other members of our team? Check out our most recent interview with the new Managing Directors of SIA.