Esther-Lea Schlegel wins the EUPRERA Award for her Master’s thesis

Just under a year after graduating from the Media study programme, Technology & Society (MTS) programme at the Media Campus of Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences, Esther-Lea Schlegel has now won the ‘Theoretical Impact Award’ from EUPRERA – the association of European PR researchers and teaching staff – for her Master’s thesis. 

At this year’s annual conference at the University of Málaga, she was presented with the prize – which includes a travel grant – by the EUPRERA Chair, Prof. Sabine Einwiller (far right), and Prof. Martina Topic-Rutherford, Head of the Scientific Committee. 

Esther-Lea Schlegel began her Bachelor’s study programme in Online Communication (BSc) in 2020, after which she completed the three-semester Master of Science study programme at the Media Campus, graduating in 2025 with the Master’s thesis that has now been honoured, entitled “Sustainability Communication in Times of Change: The Need for Strategic Adaptation’. In this thesis, using a bank as a case study, Esther-Lea developed and tested the academic framework A.D.A.P.T., which enables sustainability communication to be used as a valuable lever in transformation even in times of waning interest in the topic, without losing credibility or coherence in communication.

The jury praised the academic originality and the high standard of theoretical analysis in this thesis, which was supervised by Prof. Lars Rademacher.

Photo: EUPRERA