Dressage and a management career: Sophie Luise Pricken achieves her goals at KLU with an unusual combination

Sophie Pricken

Marketing, Accounting or the Statistics test – in the daytime, student Sophie Luise Pricken gives her all for her bachelor’s in management at Kühne Logistics University (KLU). But her evenings belong to Grando, her 8-year-old Haflinger gelding. For the 19-year-old, a perfect combination that holds a number of surprising parallels.

“If you want to be successful on the back of a horse, you need to be ambitious and disciplined – and a good team player. At university, it’s practically the same,” said the student from New Brandenburg. She is in her second semester at KLU and has been riding dressage for 11 years. “You also have to practice regularly; that’s another thing that sports and studying have in common.” Pricken knows what she is talking about: as a successful equestrian, she already has an impressive collection of tournament ribbons.

Since Pricken went to Oxford during her school days to spend three months as an exchange student, her goal has been clear. “I was determined to study at a cross-cultural university. In the business world, you have to be able to collaborate successfully with many cultures,” she said. “You only learn how to do that at an internationally oriented university.” But she could not go to college abroad – that would have meant leaving her horse behind.

KLU was the perfect solution for the young manager. “From the very beginning, I was enthusiastic about the way KLU has supported my sport. After someone broke into the stall and stole part of my equipment, I didn’t think I could go on. But KLU stepped in and helped with an offer to sponsor part of the replacement equipment,” she said. Since then, she has proudly ridden in polo shirts and with a saddle blanket bearing her university’s logo. “I also know that I can miss a lecture if I have to organize a vet for Grando – what a good feeling!”

The logistics and management university in Hamburg’s HafenCity has quickly become like a family for Pricken. “Our classes contain 30 students maximum, which means intense work to the benefit of everyone,” she said. She is especially good at teamwork – on all levels. “The professors are always open for new ideas, which means I can help my university develop further. At other places, this would be unthinkable,” said Pricken. Her dream is to establish an equestrian sports team at KLU.

She plans to supplement her management degree at KLU with a degree in pharmaceutics: “Then I’d like to take over my father’s pharmacy and develop it further with lots of new solutions. I have already been able to acquire important ideas for the logistics and business management areas.”

Pricken also has a major goal in mind when it comes to her sport. “I would like to start in the German Haflinger Championships with Grando,” she said. “We have a lot of work ahead of us. But my trainer and I are optimistic that I can achieve this goal.” With ambition, discipline, and teamwork.

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