ZIS Foundation for Study Trips

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
ZIS Foundation for Study Trips
Logo of the ZIS Foundation for Study Trips
Legal form: Non-profit foundation under civil law
Purpose: The promotion of young people by awarding scholarships for study trips abroad
Chair: Bernhard Bueb
Consist: since 2002, successor to the association since 1956
Founder: Private donors, foundations and the Schloss Salem School
Seat: Salem (Baden)
Website: www.zis-reisen.de

The ZIS Foundation for Study Trips is a non-profit foundation under civil law based in Salem ( Lake Constance district , Baden-Württemberg ). It offers young people between the ages of 16 and 20 a scholarship program that is strongly influenced by approaches from experiential education . The foundation itself writes “zis” (in lower case) in its publications and in its logo.

The focus is on a scholarship of currently 600 euros (as of 2018). The conditions for funding are:

  • Only with this tight budget
  • basically alone
  • and with a subject of your choice
  • the scholarship holders travel abroad
  • and submit a study report, a diary and the statement of the scholarship amount to a jury three months after their return.

The work will be evaluated by a jury made up of volunteers. Particularly outstanding projects are awarded book or cash prizes. In addition, ZIS can suggest successful scholarship holders for a selection seminar of the German National Academic Foundation . Young people of both sexes from all countries can apply, school grades and educational background play no role. The foundation is based on the premises of the Schule Schloss Salem , with which it shares numerous basic educational beliefs.

history

The idea of ​​the ZIS scholarships comes from France. The architect and future industrialist Jean Walter (1883–1957) went on a bicycle trip to Istanbul on his own as a teenager , which he later perceived to be formative for his personal development and professional success. After he made his fortune, from 1939 on he offered scholarships for character-building adventure trips on a private basis. After the Second World War, he set up the Fondation Zellidja in France, named after a deposit in North Africa , which was supposed to enable other young people to experience similar things . In 1956 the concept was transferred to Germany by the then Salem teacher Marina Ewald . An important goal of the early years was, in addition to the general promotion of international understanding, in particular the reconciliation between the two war enemies Germany and France.

The scholarship program was initially funded by the Conference of Internationally-minded Schools (CIS), a global association of schools that had dedicated themselves to reform education . This gave rise to the name "CIS scholarships". After the former German Society for European Education temporarily acted as the ideal sponsor of the scholarship program and the name CIS had to be abandoned for trademark reasons, a sponsoring association was founded in 1976, initially under the name "ZIS - Cooperation International Study Travel Scholarships", later "European Organization for Travel Study Scholarships" ZIS e. V. ". Liane Wuttig (1916–2007) took over the chairmanship in 1977, which she then held for decades. The general secretary was Hanne Bauer (1918–2000), who worked in Salem.

In 2002, the sponsoring association was dissolved and the non-profit ZIS Foundation for Study Trips was set up in terms of personnel continuity among the volunteers . On the campus of the Schloss Salem school in Überlingen-Härlen , the then regional president of the Tübingen district, Hubert Wicker , presented the deed of foundation to the last chairman of the ZIS association, Klaus Pfaff (1935-2008), and to the founding chairman of the newly formed board of trustees, Eberhard Leitz , and the chairman of the new foundation board, Bernhard Bueb . The start -up capital of the foundation is 150,000 D-Marks and, according to the will of the foundation's founders, is to finance the scholarship program on a sustainable basis.

present

In 2011, the foundation had a capital of around 300,000 euros. Added to this is the Friedrich Karl Klausing Foundation, which was set up in May 2008 on the private initiative of two founders. It is a dependent sub-foundation. It is named after Friedrich Karl Klausing (1920–1944), who belongs to the group of resistance fighters of July 20, 1944 . When the sub-foundation was founded on May 10, 2008 in Salem, Bernd Rüthers , the former rector of the University of Konstanz, described Klausing, who was executed in Berlin-Plötzensee , as one of the youngest and least known conspirators of the Hitler attack. The Friedrich-Karl-Klausing-Foundation is not supposed to fix the ZIS-Foundation to a certain historical picture. The young people should be encouraged to think about the importance of free conscience decisions.

Between 2005 and 2010 the ZIS Foundation regularly awarded around 50 scholarships for study trips . The selection process is part of the jury, which also decides on the submitted work. The substantive work of the foundation is thus carried out on a voluntary basis.

financing

The scholarships are financed from three sources: through income from the foundation's capital, regular donations from the Freundeskreis and individual donations. The foundation states its annual turnover at around 60,000 euros. The most recent increase in the funding amount to 600 euros was made by the foundation's board of directors as the managing body in 2007. Historically, the amount of the scholarship has developed roughly in line with consumer prices in Germany. The foundation's committees have so far rejected differentiated funding depending on the travel destination, because all young people should be given the same offer and they should decide for themselves what they want to trust with the uniform budget.

pedagogy

The foundation's concept is based on experiential education . By confronting the foreign and being thrown back on themselves, the young people should have new experiences and experience a maturation process. On the occasion of a visit to Salem, the then Federal President Johannes Rau said: "This remarkable scholarship program is a great opportunity to test yourself in encounters with foreigners and foreigners."

The ZIS Foundation stands out from similar offers in that it forces the young people it supports to travel alone. This is also justified by the fact that the scholarship holders are thereby forced to a greater extent to get involved with the people of their host country. The conscious experience of distance should also be ensured by not supporting travel by plane. In particular, the research topic should also serve as a bridge between the scholarship holders and the local people. The budget is deliberately kept tight for similar reasons. This is to ensure that the young people do not fall into a tourist role. Finally, applicants are usually expected to have knowledge of the national language of the host country or a language of communication.

The young people are looked after by experienced volunteers before and after their trip. In this way, they prepare their trip independently under supervision, find conversation partners for their topic and accommodation on site. The exchange between the scholarship holders is also encouraged. The grant is generally only accepted if the supervisor considers the topic to be feasible and the travel plan to be safe.

At the end of their trip, all scholarship holders receive a comprehensive personal assessment from their supervisor, which highlights the strengths and weaknesses of the travel project.

Foundation bodies

The foundation has statutes from 2002 that describe the foundation bodies and their responsibilities. Thereafter, the Board of Trustees oversees the work of the Foundation as a whole; new members are appointed by the Board of Trustees themselves. The Board of Trustees, in coordination with the plenum of volunteers, also appoints the Board of Management for three years to manage and be responsible for ongoing business. It is anchored in the statutes that at least three former scholarship holders must be represented on the board. All volunteer employees make up the foundation's board of trustees, which at the working level is also the jury for the selection of applicants and the evaluation of their submitted work.

Travel themes and countries

The foundation basically enables trips to all countries. Young people whose center of life and origin is outside the Federal Republic of Germany can also travel to Germany. When approving projects, the travel warnings and notices of the Federal Foreign Office are taken into account with a view to security. The basic understanding of ZIS is that the success of a trip does not depend on the number of kilometers traveled or on the particularly exotic nature of the topic. If the financing is secured, a trip can be longer than the required minimum of four weeks.

The choice of travel countries and topics also reflects the areas of interest of young people, which have been subject to many changes over the decades. Systematic research on the selected topics has shown that, since 1956, there have repeatedly been focal points on certain issues - such as environmental and nature conservation, the social status of women or the topic of migration and integration. Studies of the role of minority languages ​​have proven to be a question that is taken up again and again. In general, ethnographic studies make up the main part of the archive, which comprises over 1500 travel projects.

1438 trips were made in the first 50 years. 284 of them led to France, 243 to Great Britain, 109 to Ireland. After the end of the Franco dictatorship and above all with the change in the canon of languages ​​in German schools, Spain in particular came into focus. So far, Italy and Greece have also been visited very often. With the fall of the Iron Curtain , the countries of the former Eastern Bloc also moved into the interests of the scholarship holders. Among the Scandinavian countries, Sweden has been the most frequently visited so far. Comparatively few trips led to German-speaking countries. Due to the tight budget and the ban on air travel, trips to non-European countries are rather rare, with the exception of the African-Arab Mediterranean region and Israel, which are at times much visited.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ ZIS Foundation for Study Trips. (No longer available online.) Tübingen Regional Council , archived from the original on March 22, 2007 ; Retrieved February 24, 2011 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.rp.baden-wuerttemberg.de
  2. ↑ Presentation of the Foundation in brochures and annual reports, available at www.zis-reisen.de
  3. ↑ Image brochure of the foundation's predecessor organization from 1994, there the ZIS school describes as a "beloved adopted child" (p. 41)
  4. ↑ On the history of the foundation in detail: Jörg-Peter Rau (Hrsg.): Destination experience . For five decades, young people have been discovering foreign cultures with the zis Foundation for Study Trips. 1st edition. Self-published by the foundation, Salem May 2006.
  5. ↑ cf. to the biographies of Christine Swientek : Visiting old women . With obstinacy, wit and charm - extraordinary portraits. Herder , Freiburg 1999, ISBN 3-451-04774-8 (paperback).
  6. ↑ "Experience" the world instead of traveling for tourists. In: SÜDKURIER online . October 8, 2002, accessed March 1, 2011 .
  7. ↑ According to personal request in the Foundation's office on February 1, 2011
  8. ↑ Annual report 2008/09. (PDF, 411 KB) zis Foundation for Study Trips, accessed on March 3, 2011 .
  9. ↑ Sponsor, Friedrich-Karl-Klausing-Stiftung and others. zis Foundation for Study Trips, accessed on March 3, 2011 .
  10. ↑ Annual reports of the foundation, published on the homepage
  11. ↑ a b c Frequently Asked Questions. zis Foundation for Study Trips, accessed on March 1, 2011 .
  12. ^ Speech on October 18, 2000 at the opening of Salem College, cf. also an elite forge upgraded to. Deutschlandradio , October 18, 2000, accessed on March 3, 2011 .
  13. ↑ Drive and write, travel section, with diary excerpts. (No longer available online.) Süddeutsche Zeitung , March 9, 2006, formerly in the original ; accessed on March 3, 2011 (paid service).  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / archiv.sueddeutsche.apa.at
  14. ↑ cf. the book "Destination Experience"
  15. ^ Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh (Ed.): Blickfeld Deutsch . School band - upper level. 2010, ISBN 3-14-028235-4 , pp. 10 ff . (The section deals specifically with the Foundation's offer).
  16. ↑ cf. in addition the book “Destination Experience”, the lists of topics of recent years available on the Internet and the lists that can be viewed online in the Foundation's annual reports

literature

  • Jörg-Peter Rau (Ed.): Destination experience . For five decades, young people have been discovering foreign cultures with the zis Foundation for Study Trips. 1st edition. Self-published by the foundation, Salem May 2006.

Web links