The summer camp organised by the ‘Strengthening Diversity’ project will take place at Paderborn University from 24 to 28 August. Under the motto ‘UniXplorer. Curiosity is encouraged!’, children and young people aged between eight and 13 can embark on a journey of discovery for five days, from 9 am to 4 pm. In small intercultural groups, the pupils will go on exciting excursions around the campus and can look forward to a varied programme put together by teacher training students from Paderborn University. Meals and transfer are provided. Anyone interested can find further information and the registration form at plaz.upb.de/sommercampfamilien. Places are allocated subject to availability.
More than ten years of valuable support and collaboration
PLAZ – Professional School of Education and the Institute of German Language and Comparative Literature at Paderborn University are organising the ‘Strengthening Diversity’ summer camp for the eleventh time. For many years, the event has received financial support and expert guidance from the Osthushenrich Foundation and the Education and Integration Centre of the District of Paderborn (BIZ) . There is also close collaboration with the PLAZEF alumni association. “We are very grateful for the support and the excellent collaboration, which has continued to develop over the years,” says summer camp director Dr Maria Mochalova. To give the cooperation partners an insight in advance and to provide the students with an opportunity to network, a joint meeting was recently held to discuss organisation and preparation.
Claudia Holle, Managing Director of the Osthushenrich Foundation, explains: “Through its financial support for the 2026 summer camp, the Osthushenrich Foundation aims to enable all children in the Paderborn district to take part in the camp, whilst at the same time offering the teacher-training students involved a valuable opportunity to gain practical experience of cultural and linguistic diversity.”
Bernhard Lünz, Managing Director of the Municipal Integration Centre at the BIZ, emphasises: “It is always fascinating to see the wide range of different themed hands-on activities on offer for the children, which facilitate intercultural and collaborative learning as well as language learning integrated into everyday life, thereby broadening their general knowledge and developing their own creative skills.”
Bardo Herzig, Director of PLAZ, emphasises: “The experience gained from the camps that have already been successfully run has once again proved invaluable. The high level of personal motivation among the student team members, who implement the programme with such dedication, is also impressive.”
An explorer returns
The summer camp left a lasting impression on one participant in particular. Fabian Deppe is a fourth-semester teacher training student at Paderborn University and was an ‘explorer’ from an early age: “I still remember having an incredible amount of fun when I took part in the summer camp as a teenager in 2017 and 2018. Now I’m studying German and History to become a teacher at grammar schools and comprehensive schools, and I’m really looking forward to being back almost ten years later – this time as a team member on the other side. It’s going to be exciting.” And so the circle is complete: Dr Mochalova completed her first summer camp as a camp leader in 2018. Now she is supporting the next generation of teacher training students on their journey: “Every year, the summer camp clearly demonstrates just how much everyone involved can learn from and with one another, and how much they can grow. It’s really great that we’re able to organise such a valuable programme here in Paderborn.” During the summer camp week, around 15 trainee teachers look after some 70 pupils in Years 2 to 7 from all types of schools in the city and district of Paderborn. The aim is to help the student team leaders develop their professional skills in working with diverse, multilingual groups of pupils and to strengthen their teamwork and organisational skills through the close integration of theory and practice.
This text was translated automatically.
