Osnabrück, November 2022

A scholarship as a door opener

There is an unusual hustle and bustle on the grounds of the Loud and Quiet Warehouse in Osnabrück Harbor: where bands usually rehearse and work is done in offices, 14 families are busily walking from station to station of the "Diesterweg Rally," which is intended to give them a first impression of what awaits them in the Diesterweg Fellowship over the next two years. Various educational and cultural institutions have prepared small activities to introduce themselves to the "newcomers" to the Diesterweg Fellowship, and while on one side of the room, at the station of the Museum of Industrial Culture, concentrated tinkering is going on, at the other end, rhythms are being fervently practiced, guided by Carolin Bormann of the Music and Art School. The occasion of this event is the admission of the new families to the scholarship, which this year includes a special feature: More than 100 families are and have now been sponsored by the project in Osnabrück.

The Diesterweg Scholarship was developed by the Stiftung Polytechnische Gesellschaft in Frankfurt am Main and is currently being implemented at 13 locations nationwide. Since 2015, it has also been a part of Osnabrück's educational landscape as a joint project of the Friedel & Gisela Bohnenkamp Foundation and the city of Osnabrück. Lord Mayor Katharina Pötter is convinced by the offer: "The Diesterweg Scholarship has become an established term in Osnabrück, which above all stands for educational participation of families."

Germany's first and only family education scholarship supports children and their families in the transition from elementary to secondary school for two years through a varied educational program as well as personal guidance. The families are nominated by Osnabrück's elementary schools, selected by a jury and then given intensive support from the beginning of 4th grade to the end of 5th grade.

One of the very first families to be accepted into the 2015 scholarship is Rouya Murad's family. The family, originally from Syria, had only been in Germany for a few months when their teachers recognized their potential and proposed them for inclusion in the scholarship. An opportunity for which Rouya is very grateful in retrospect: "At the beginning, I didn't even understand how much the Diesterweg Scholarship would mean to me. I had fun with the activities, especially the summer courses, and learned a lot. But now that I'm older, I can only really appreciate how much it actually helped me. I'm very glad that the Diesterweg Scholarship gave me the opportunity to develop like this!" After an alumni workshop of the Diesterweg Fellowship, which focused on opportunities for young people to participate and also introduced the Osnabrück Youth Parliament, she is now involved in the very parliament herself for the development of the city of Osnabrück and confidently stands up for the interests of her generation.

Her mother Zouzan Abdo has particularly positive memories of the support she received during the transition to secondary school: "It was very helpful for us to receive so much information and advice on this difficult decision. And after the academy day at the public library, we were there almost every day!" Mayor Pötter: "The scholarship is a door opener - it brings children and their families into contact with the educational and cultural offerings of our city."

But the fact that the Diesterweg Scholarship is much more than just providing content and access to educational and cultural institutions can be felt everywhere on this day in Osnabrück Harbor. The families meet each other with joy, get to know themselves and each other in a whole new way. "The fact that the parents are also actively involved creates a very special dynamic within the families during the activities," says Liane Kirchhoff from the Theaterpädagogische Werkstatt, who is enthusiastic about the concept of the family education scholarship. Project manager Katharina Liebing emphasizes: "Education and relationships are very closely linked in our Diesterweg Fellowship. Both are essential factors for the development of children and their families!" And Rouya also reports that they are still in touch with some of the families they were able to get to know in the Diesterweg Fellowship: "The contacts with the other families are not lost - we had such an intense time, the shared memories connect us."

Michael Prior, spokesman for the board of the Bohnenkamp Foundation, sums it up this way at the end of the varied day: "Today we have accepted the 100th family into the Diesterweg Scholarship, but in the end we have the feeling: actually, with time we will become one big Diesterweg family!"

Photos: Ulrike Lehnisch