Clever Education Initiative (CEI) is an education project based at the Joseph Beuys Gesamtschule in Kleve. It supports (secondary) school students from refugee and migrant families (children with German as a second language) individually with the support of volunteers, primarily from Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences, but also includes students from other higher education institutions.

Project vision

Our goal is to create educational justice in Germany in the long term, where migrant and refugee children are given equal opportunities to participate in a successful and self-determined life in our society.

Our approach

We provide a 1:1 concept in which one student gets paired up with one volunteer. In the volunteers, the pupils find caring mentors who help and motivate to learn German continuously and develop their cognitive and social skills. After all, these disadvantaged and mostly educationally deprived children should also be able to strive for a school career that corresponds to their full capacities. We are aware that school is often the only place where refugee and migrant families find an intersection with German society. Thus, it is even more important to build a perspective of integration.

International students

According to the 2021 press release, Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences has 53% foreign students, i.e. a particularly high proportion of international students. These in particular are also addressed by our education project. In this way the DaZ-students, sometimes even from their own country of origin, have mentors with whom they can identify themselves with since these international students are also looking for access to the German language and society.

University students meet local pupils

This project is aimed at all university students who live in Kleve and who would like to be involved in the DaZ-class on a long-term basis, one - or more times a week.

Social start-up

This project is a social start-up based on volunteer students which commit their time and energy to support school students depending on their time schedule. After the volunteering period ends, they will get a certificate by the school management that will enrich their CV for further professional career path and most importantly strengthens their ability to work in a culturally diverse background.

Klever Heimatpreis

The Start-up has been awarded the Klever Heimatpreis in October 2022.

The Heimatpreis is a funding program set up by the Ministerium für Heimat, Kommunales, Bau und Gleichstellung NRW (Ministry for Home Affairs, Municipal Affairs, Construction and Equality of North Rhine-Westphalia) to honor associations and institutions that are active throughout the district (which means that they must be active in or for the predominant district area).

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