German Student Academy
The Deutsche SchülerAkademie is an extracurricular program of the Talent Support Center Education & Talent that has existed since 1988 to promote particularly talented and motivated high school students. For this purpose, several 16-day academies are held at various locations in Germany every summer. They are part of the federal and state programs to promote talented students. The program is financed by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research , the Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft and various foundations , among others . The patron is the Federal President , the office is in Bonn .
program
During the academies, the young people work together in courses on various academic topics at university level. The spectrum ranges from mathematics to natural, engineering, humanities, law and economics courses to topics from the musical and artistic field. In 2019, the offer comprised 60 courses in a total of seven academy locations. In addition to the course work of the academies, a variety of musical, sporting and other cross-course activities are offered.
The aim of the program is, on the one hand, to offer the students an intellectual challenge, to allow them to look beyond their previous environment and, if necessary, to push them to the limits of their performance. On the other hand, the participants should also be given the opportunity to get to know other talented students from all over Germany and partly from abroad.
Organizational structure of an academy
The academies take place during the summer holidays and each last 16 (JGW academies 12) days. They each consist of six courses (four in the Multinational Academies), with each course consisting of 16 participants and two instructors. The academy teams consist of 15 to 16 (for multinational academies 11) people:
- one or two academy directors
- an assistant to the academy management (usually a former participant)
- twelve (eight for Multinational Academies) course instructors
- one responsible for the area of cross-course music
Conditions of participation
Eligible are pupils of the penultimate two grades at schools that lead to the general university entrance qualification. You must not be older than 20 years on July 1st of the year of the Academy. Above-average intellectual abilities, broad interest and a high level of motivation are also required.
The students are either recommended by their school or qualify through successful participation in certain nationwide student competitions. You can also apply yourself using an online form and by submitting a letter of motivation and a letter of recommendation. For reasons of capacity, however, only a certain number of applicants can be accepted; in 2018, the admission rate was 47 percent. In principle, each student can only take part in the program once. Large parts of the costs are covered by the funds made available by public and private donors. The remaining excess of the participants can be reimbursed for social reasons.
development
In 1988 the Ferienakademie Bonn was the only student academy. In 1989, 1990 and 1992 there were two academies nationwide. In 1993 the German Bundestag established the German Student Academy as a permanent measure in the budget of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, and in 1994 the Conference of Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs also gave its approval to the program. After that, the scope grew steadily to up to twelve academies in 2011 and 2013/2014: in 2019, a total of ten academies took place at seven locations.
From 2003 to 2015, some of the student academies were organized as a "multinational academy" and funded by the Haniel Foundation . In addition to the German participants, gifted students from Eastern Europe also took part in the course program. In Waldenburg these were pupils from the Czech Republic , Romania , Hungary and Slovakia , in Torgelow am See young people from Latvia , Lithuania , Estonia and Poland . The multinational academies consisted of four instead of six courses, so that only eight course instructors were involved and the academy team consisted of a total of 11 people.
Since 2004, the Association for Youth Education in Society and Science (JGW) has also been organizing a number of student academies to enable more young people to participate. These academies are closely based on the regular ones and are supported and offered by the office of the Deutsche SchülerAkademie. The conditions of participation and the application process are therefore identical to those of the regular academies. The main difference is the shorter duration of the events at 10 days.
Alumni organization
The Club of Alumni of the German SchoolchildrenAkademien e. V. (CdE) is the alumni association of the student academy with approx. 4,500 members. Former participants in a student academy and, for some time now, also participants in CdE academies have been able to become members of the CdE since 1992 in order to stay in contact with former participants of their own and other academies. The CdE is organized in local groups in larger cities (in Germany and abroad). The association organizes seminars and academies based on the model of the DSA. At these CdE academies, each participant chooses a course in advance, ranging from more everyday things such as cooking courses to sporting activities such as dancing to scientific courses on all kinds of topics. In all courses, the focus is on further training or the acquisition of skills, whereby the motivation of the participants is very high due to the voluntary nature of the training. The courses are held by (unpaid) instructors who are normal participants outside of the course times.
Annual academies are the Winter Academy (1½ weeks) in Kaub and Oberwesel in the Middle Rhine Valley , the Whitsun Academy (extended weekend) and the Summer Academy (one week) on the Eisenberg near Kirchheim / Bad Hersfeld, as well as the Multinational Academy, which mostly takes place in eastern countries. In the annual seminars of the CdE, the participants present their scientific work to each other. In addition, the association offers various projects, especially leisure time (e.g. skiing and sailing), which are also organized by association members. Some academies and seminars were funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research .
German Junior Academies
In addition to the program of the Deutsche SchülerAkademie, which is aimed at secondary level II students, regional academies have also been organized since 2003 to promote high-performing secondary school students . The coordination is also carried out by the German Student Academy.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Website of the German Student Academy , accessed on March 1, 2019.
- ↑ a b Dates 2019 on the website of the Deutsche SchülerAkademie , accessed on March 1, 2019.
- ↑ Prerequisites for participation on the website of the Deutsche SchülerAkademie , accessed on March 1, 2019.
- ↑ The application process on the website of the German Student Academy , accessed on March 1, 2019.
- ↑ Guidelines for allocating places on the website of the Deutsche SchülerAkademie , accessed on March 1, 2019.
- ↑ Multinational academies: Haniel Foundation and Education & Talent promote top European talent. Education & Talent, accessed March 1, 2019.
- ↑ Imprint. CdE e. V., accessed on August 6, 2020 .
- ↑ The association. CdE e. V., accessed on August 6, 2020 .
- ↑ Types of events. CdE e. V., accessed on August 6, 2020 .