Summer School 2009: Invitation

From August 24 to August 30, 2009, for the fourth time consecutively, the International Award Summer School will open its doors in Osterburken, Germany. Young adults planning to become Award leaders, as well as experienced leaders wanting to deepen and share their knowledge are invited to participate in an Award Leaders Course or an Expedition Course, an Award Officers Course and different workshops held in English language.

In the tradition of Kurt Hahn*), we strongly believe that to explain the Award is not enough, and that we also have to take care that its spirit can be experienced in every single seminar. Hence in Summer School, “learning by doing” is the most important seminar method. Just like Award helpers, trainers in our Award courses are basically not supposed to act for themselves but to make the participants act.

But there is more going on than just a couple of courses! There is “service” – because everybody is involved in course duties, such as providing food, preparing lunch and cleaning the kitchen; “adventure” – because the first part involves a tour in the countryside; “skills” – because a documentation is to be prepared, and “physical recreation” – because everybody can start or end his / her day with some guided physical activity.

Gold Award participants can use International Award Summer School as their Residential Project, experienced Award leaders as a Train The Trainer seminar. Again, Summer School 2009 will not be a youth exchange in the first instance, but mainly a sequence of different leaders courses with the minimum age of 16 as a most important condition for taking part successfully.

*) Kurt Hahn, the “inventor” of the Award, was born (1886) and died (1974) in Germany