Internship in Germany Program 1-3 months

My time at the Excellence Center in Europe was amazing and I am very grateful for it. I am so thankful for the opportunities I had to connect with the local refugee community in Halle and individuals throughout the city. I loved the community at the Excellence Center and the friendships I developed there. While at times it was difficult adjusting to a new environment, all the people I met made me feel very welcomed and cared for. I really enjoyed getting to teach English to so many students, being able to hear their stories, and build lasting connections with them. I will never forget my time there, especially the project I did interviewing local Syrian refugees about their current lives in Germany. My experiences at the Excellence Center solidified my desire to work with the refugee community in Germany as that is the next step I am taking in my life. I know I will see everyone at the Excellence Center again soon and I am so grateful to all of them for all they did for me and making my time in Halle so special.

Some people, particularly Westerners like myself, may be quick to think of the Excellence Center as a little disorganized. But with time and observation, you realize that’s because the Excellence Center is not a profit minded, efficiency machine like the businesses we are used to seeing in the West. At the Excellence Center, it’s not about money. It’s not about doing everything as quickly or as cheaply as possible. The Excellence Center is a community center before anything else. And in this community center we connect through sharing our stories, culture, and languages with one another in a truly unique, personal experience.
Things are quite personal, and intimate. Every morning starts with breakfast for the whole team, so no matter how busy you think you are, you can sit down with your new family and connect, talk, make plans, and start the day off right. Some people may consider the daily routine at the EC to be without much structure, but that’s because there is a considerable amount of freedom with every day here. You can make your own schedule, you can prioritize what you find most important, you have room to grow, try new things, and forge new friendships. And the friendships are what stuck with me the most. From the first day, I was greeted warmly into what I thought was a little chaotic, but I realized later was actually the energy of dynamic, genuine people. You will be dumbfounded by how quickly you become attached not only to the staff, but the other volunteers, your students, and even the city itself. I’m leaving Germany with new friends from all around the world, and I have every intention to see them through the next years of life, because we are forever connected through a really unique experience.
The people at the Excellence Center, the community, is what makes everything worth it. Everybody has a place in the Excellence Center, no matter who you are, where you are from, or what you do. It’s a place for positivity, new experiences, intercultural connections, and love. If you’re looking for a new scene, new friends, experiences that make you see the world a little differently, if you want to make a change in the lives of others, if you want to do something good for the world, even on a small scale, then the Excellence Center is for you- because the Excellence Center is for everybody.

My experience at the Excellence Center has been amazing and I've had so much fun in the weeks that I was here. I spent most of my time at the center itself but I have visited other places around Halle and other cities like Berlin, Frankfurt, Darmstadt, and Thale. Everyone at the center is super friendly and were great people to hang around. The Center organized a couple events like tours, gatherings, and trips like Berlin and Thalle for example. There are also weekly soccer matches that are held at a park nearby and the winning team usually gets a prize. The atmosphere at the center is amazing and the people here are fun to hang out with in general. I found myself rarely alone here and had a ton of fun hanging out with people at parks and the river nearby. I took the german classes here and it was pretty good even though I had very little background knowledge about german. I helped another volunteer with her one on one classes as I was only able to teach by myself in online classes since I was a minor. Even though I was one of the youngest at the center I didn’t feel left out or anything like that but instead found myself pretty comfortable and making friends with people in Halle. Halle is pretty safe overall, I haven’t experienced any feeling of fear while walking around the city late at night. I also learned a lot about the refugee situation in Halle and the process of integration for incoming refugees like language, housing, and job programs while also learning about how it could be improved. We also visited a couple of Syrian restaurants with amazing food for such cheap prices. The volunteers at the Center were amazing people and this experience will stick with me for the rest of my life. On a side note bring a lot of physical cash if you plan on eating out at a lot of these restaurants.

It is absolutely daunting to find the precise words to describe my gratitude to the excellence centre, personally speaking my internship at the Excellence centre has impacted me so deeply, ether from what concerns my academic or personal level, When I came during my first time on July 2021:

I didn’t expect that my experience will influence my entire life, I come to teach English and learn German, it sounds as a very basic and normal task that a normal volunteer will do towards refugees, but the actual fact is that I didn’t plan that I will be surprised by the stuff at the Excellence centre,they were sublime, helpful and joyful, sincerely this centre has an insurmountable feeling of magnitude, everyone who comes here for the very first time wants to repeat this marvellous experience again,and yet this is what happened to me,in addition to the stuff of the Excellence centre,you meet people from different culture and indeed you expand your horizons more and more, as an international and global studies master’s student I was looking for my area of interest of perhaps I was looking for myself the genuine Salma where I could shine and give the best I can, hence I’m over the moon my last experience on July 2021 drove me to think deeply and wisely about my final thesis project, thus I tried to shed light on the issue of integration of the female women in Halle(Saale), since then my knowledge’s journey has started, I come again to centre on March 2022,where I have started my internship for roughly two months, these months were absolutely magical, each day prevails lots and lots of feelings, feeling of gratitude, hope and aspiration:

The centre has helped me to do a great deal of interviews with Syrian female refugees women in Halle, and this has broaden my knowledge to know more about their struggle and yet this will indeed help me to write a proficient master thesis, last but not least, the only thing that I can add is that I have genuinely no words to describe my gratitude and thanks to this centre, a great acquaintance from the part of the centre is Jihan,she is as well a great lady who has helped me through the centre to know and do more interviews with women:

Rafat,Radwan are the best administration members that any volunteer like myself aim to be supervised by, thank you to all the volunteers who were absolutely amazing ,helpful and terribly down to earth ,finally if there is someone who is intrigued about shaping the community coherence, this is your place..

I have spent the last month at the Excellence Centre in Halle, completing the Refugee Resettlement internship and I can safely say that the time has flown by! The programme is incredibly eye-opening and rewarding, whilst the community atmosphere of the Excellence Centre makes each day enjoyable.

What is really unique about this programme is the vast array of opportunities you will receive as an intern. I spent the first week receiving German classes and began to teach both English and German to students from Syria and Turkey. I had never taught English or German as a foreign language before but found it an incredibly rewarding experience. I was touched by the levels of motivation and enthusiasm shown by each student, and I really enjoyed getting to know them better. The next few weeks were focused on gaining a better understanding of the situation of refugees. There were sessions and tours of the city which focused on Germany’s response to the refugee crisis as well as opportunities to meet and speak with refugees living in the area. I also had the opportunity to conduct an interview with a Syrian refugee, which provided the basis for a presentation I delivered about the integration of refugees in Germany. I feel as if I have a much deeper understanding of the situation of refugees after completing this internship.

The centre itself was always a very positive environment. There were a lot of opportunities to get to know each other better thanks to all the activities organised by the centre, from football matches to tours of the city. I made so many friends in such a short amount of time.
Outside of the centre, I enjoyed staying with a host family in Halle. My host mum was brilliant and made myself and the other volunteer she hosted feel right at home. We met her family, went to Halle’s chocolate museum, and had film nights together. It was also an excellent opportunity to speak German.

Overall, I would recommend this internship to anyone who is interested in learning more about the situation of refugees in Europe and who wants to do something positive for the refugee community. I am really grateful for the experiences I have had at the Excellence Centre.

My name is Abraham Ochoa. I am a college student from America participating in the Refugee Resettlement internship. I have spent an immersive and insightful four weeks here in Halle, Germany. The program is eye opening and well structured. It offered a wide range of engaging activities that included a mix of learning, teaching, researching, presenting, and more. My first week was fully dedicated to intensive Arabic classes. I had the opportunity to do 4 hours of class everyday, one on one with an Arabic instructor. This definitely pushed me to develop my Arabic skills further and to immerse myself in the language. The following week, I jumped straight into teaching English to refugees at the center. I was able to work both with refugees here in Halle as well as with refugees abroad in Turkey. It was a great way to give back and learn more about the challenges of being a refugee. Simultaneously, I was receiving presentations about the asylum procedure that all refugees go through. This was paired with a tour of the city, specifically focusing on how the city has adapted and been influenced by the refugee population. It was truly inspiring to see the many businesses opened by the refugees who have found a new home here in Germany. In addition, I also was able to interview refugees about their journey from Syria to Germany and the challenges that they faced once they arrived here. Listening to their stories about their journeys from war torn Syria all the way to Germany was inspiring and truly eye-opening. Like many people, I have read about the war in Syria, but it is another experience entirely to speak with someone who lived through it. It truly leaves you full of awe and compassion.

On top of all this, the community at the center is amazing and very welcoming. From the moment I landed, I was well received by my host family. My accommodation was extremely comfortable and accessible. Having breakfast every morning at the center was a great way to get to know my fellow volunteers and the workers here at the center. The friendships I made here have made my experience here truly unique. I was also able to travel to other European countries during my weekends which is something I highly recommend to all future volunteers. This is an amazing program that I recommend to anyone who wants to learn more about the refugee experience, learn Arabic, or teach English. It is also a great way to learn about other cultures, meet new lifelong friends, and explore a new area of the world. I loved the diversity of activities here and the flexibility to choose your own focus within the program. I hope to be a volunteer again with the program and visit their center in Palestine.

To all the people who are considering to apply to the excellence center, here are a few things you need to know.

1. You will never find a more family-like workplace anywhere in the world.
The interns, the managers and interns works together in the office 24/7, during which they explore the city, cook and share meals, engross in discussions and work. The welcoming and open atmosphere of the workplace makes you bond with it beyond a mere professional relationship. The people you meet there will become your dearest friends, spread all over the world.

2. You will get to hear stories and experiences you had never been able to access. You will be working with refugees who had directly been through the issues you had read in the news. They shore a different, more in-depth side of the issue that widens your perspective about the world, and changes your perception of global issues. Moreover, you will be housed with a refugee family, with whom you will share meals and form a familia relationship. Just simply talking and mingling with the people in the center will inspire and mold you into a better global leader who understands the context of the refugee issue more insightfully.

3. Communication is very, very efficient. Both managers, Rafat and Mutaz are open to all opinions and criticisms and are quick to tailor the program to match it to you. They want not only the center to improve but for the volunteers and interns to advance, so they will be extremely attentive to your progress.

4. There is amazing travel opportunities. Not only does the center provide a trip to Halle, if you apply to become an intern, they take you to Leipzig, a near by city to show you how the refugees had integrated in the German culture. You will be given wonderful authentic food and an opportunity to interview the refugees who are working and living inside Germany. Not only that the center allows you to take a total of 8 days break to travel all around Germany. For me, I used my travel days to adventure into Prague, which became my favorite city.

5. The education you will receive is pristine. You will be taken to nearby universities to talk with the faculty member, and will be given lectures in the center about the status quo of refugee migration. You will also have the chance to do your own research and present it infront of the whole staff and volunteers.

I participated in a four-week program at the Excellence Center in Europe. My first week consisted exclusively of Foreign language classes, participants are given the option to chose between Arabic and German. The classes lasted four to five hours and were dense with language instruction. I chose to study German for the first week, because I already knew some basic level Arabic and wished to communicate with people in Halle (Saale). My teacher's name was Muhammad and he proved to be a very adept instructor. I learned much more German, especially grammar, than I would have originally anticipated.

The other three weeks consisted of presentations about the Syrian Refugee Crisis, Syrian society, and the History of modern Syria. These presentations proved to be exceedingly interesting and very educational. I was under the assumption that I had a good grasp of the Syrian civil war beforehand but I ended up learning so much more than I thought I would.

After the most week is when we began teaching English classes to refugees. The classes were the most memorable part of the experience because of how eager the students were to learn. Some of the classes consisted mostly of teenagers, and some were exclusively adults, so you met a wide range of people, all of whom were very pleasant to teach and to work with.

The other participants and I made several presentations about ourselves and our home countries, and about the Halle as well; and had the opportunity to present them to the entire staff at the Excellence Center and for some of the students.

The staff at the Excellence Center were some of the most genuinely friendly and splendid people I have ever met. They were great to work with and very personable as well. This experience was certainly life changing for me and I made such amazing friendships and connections in Halle that I hope will last a lifetime.