Wilfried Ifland, Chairman of YouCan Trust, was beaming on his birthday!! The YouCan Talk on 5th of May was really an evening spanning generations. With the focus of the evening on social change, this “age-independent” aspect can surely be seen as progress. Tim Bruysten (wavetank – everything collaboration) explained clearly that, for instance, the iPhone itself does not represent progress but the changed behaviour of its users does. Here we have to think how the spread of the Internet has indirectly heightened expectations in living and can thus bring real progress to a society. Of interest was also his thoughtful estimate of ever increasing acceleration: given the ever shorter development periods in science and technology, could it be dangerous to continue to have a 4-year legislature?

What should and can schools teach today? All present quickly concluded: education, which does not mean merely disseminating facts and knowledge. Classes today? Some guests were amazed at the changes taking place in the classroom. Tristan Junker, Felix Kaysers and Malte Moeser presented their results of their participation in this year’s Focus Competition and surprised most of the older guests with their “matter-of-fact” knowledge and maturity, showing that they will not belong to those who will dedicate their whole life to a job. The awareness to take responsibility themselves to do and make something of their lives was their key message.

The really interesting thing was reflected in what was not said. All present discussed among themselves and asked questions, such as: what is actually a “Wiki”?, which the 3 young men could easily answer. In many ways they are way ahead of the older generation but they can still benefit from the experience of the latter. The mood was: finally a different picture of young people. It is a pity that one does not hear much about this from the mass media, an almost frightening state. Learning from and with one another, discussing and listening, and this between generations. This is how we envisage one form of progress. A connection that bridges generations!

Toward the end, Patrick Wallochny briefly presented the film project “IndianCurry”. If you want to find out more about this project, he and Jonas Zimmermann will talk about this in more detail at the YouCan Talk event on 8th June in Essen. Should be exciting!!

We thank all participants, speakers and guests for making this a great YouCan Talk evening! Many thanks also from the young people that so many completed the feedback forms. The comments will surely be useful. Please note: the next YouCan Talk in Düsseldorf will take place on the 1st of September. Among the guests will be Sraddhabandhu with a presentation on: Helping from a Buddhist point of view.

How modern technologies will change the education system and create the Entrepreneurial Society of the 21st Century

We are grateful to School Headmaster Brigitte Vinke for allowing all the senior classes to attend this event. First Lord Mayor of Düsseldorf Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann warmed up the public to encourage the students of the E-U21 Club to make it to the Finals in Berlin. Jonas Zimmermann, also in his final year at the Annette Gymnasium, recorded everything and will surely prepare a terrific documentary.

We remember: YouCan was able to successfully support him by getting numerous sponsors to buy “shares” in his film project “Das Lebel ist kein Ponyhof”. An investment that paid off: his film won the First Prize at the Student Film Festival NRW. Congratulations! Now we have to make sure that we can convince the jury that the students of the Annette Gymnasium from Düsseldorf deserve to go to Berlin for the Finals. The countdown has started. We should know the result by the end of May.

If you want to know more about this project, you can attend the next YouCan Talk in Düsseldorf on 5th of May. That evening, the students participating in the competition will present more of their work in the framework of the “Action Days for Political Education”. As an additional incentive we will offer a glass of champagne for each guest. After the presentation, all guests are invited to complete the feedback forms and help the students to improve. This is also a YouCan project. The “seniors” can evaluate the “juniors” and the “juniors” the “seniors”. Because one thing we know: one can learn a lot from young people!

For the site of the “Bundeszentrale for Political Education” and the Action Days program, click here

said YouCan Talk host Gabi Mohr. Such constructive discussions are very rare. This happened at the first YouCan Talk in Berlin. Some 25 guests turned up for the first YouCan Talk in Berlin. Frank Freiherr von Coburg gave a presentation and comprehensive overview of voluntary work and its significance, backed up by the numbers of citizens taking part. Each year, some 4.6 billion hours of voluntary services are spent. This amounts to 7.5% of all paid working hours in Germany. At an average of 7.50 Euros per hour, these voluntary services amount to a value of nearly 35 billion Euros. A fundamental point is: the more projects that are able to maintain their character and independence from third parties, the more attractive they are for voluntary engagement.

Max Seedorf, just 14 years of age, presented his own view on the subject of voluntary work. “If one has stood in front of 150 people and one knows it is the result of one’s own efforts, that is already very exciting. And one knows then also to what one is committed. That feeling stays and motivates to keep going.” Max is, apart from his involvement with the Association against Child Poverty (Verein Gegen Kinderarmut), also engaged with the “Drinking Water Project” (Trinkwasserprojekt) in a voluntary capacity. In his just 8 minutes of presenting, he cam straight to the point on his chosen topic, a fact that was rewarded with lots of applause.

Looking at humanity with different eyes

This was the plea of Herbert Haberl in his presentation on having a “condition-less basic income”. His appeal says: don’t always consider the worst of all possibilities with regards to other people! Only a small percentage of people are abusing the social system and most of the time, all attention is given to this fact. He admits that in the beginning he too thought that having a “condition-less basic income” cannot work – the mere thought of it is nonsense. But by examining the issue closer, he changed his mind fundamentally, taking into account actual studies made by Prof. Dr. Thomas Strabhaar (“A basic income for all – holistic solution instead of partial mishmash”) and Prof. Theo Wehner (“Rehumanizing Society”). A very informative presentation!

More links and information on this theme, put together by Herbert Haberl:
Innovative Middle Blog
Innovative Middle Facebook
Innovative Middle Twitter

The subsequent two hours of discussion proved how current this topic is. One of the guests (who traveled all the way from Switzerland to attend YouCan Talk) heard about this topic for the first time and therefore contributed to an interesting discussion, which lasted until late into the night. And besides, Herbert Haberl was surprised by the written feedback he received on his presentation from Max. Luckily, Max Seedorf praised him throughout. A really exciting first event for YouCan Talk in Berlin. We thank all speakers and guests for a successful evening!

The next YouCan Talk in Berlin is scheduled for 15th of May 2010. This event is in conjunction with the “Action Days for Political Education” from 5th to 23rd May. Information on individual topics will be published shortly but one we can already disclose today: there will be a presentation on Nobel Peace Prize Muhammad Yunus.

For evaluation purposes, the following questions will be asked:

• Which points made the highest impression on me? (max. 3)
• What did I particularly like?
• What do I recommend for the next presentation?

The members of our project group “entrepreneur@school” will start this at the next YouCan Talk event in Düsseldorf. They are participating in this year’s Focus competition “Out of the Classroom, into the Practice”. For the final selection, 20 schools will be invited to present in Berlin. A request to all YouCan Talkers: participate and help these young people to grow a bit by giving them your written feedback on their presentation for them to take back. On behalf of the students, we thank you for your support.

Entrepreneur@School is aimed at preparing students for the workplace of the future, a future that in some organizations has already arrived. With traditional jobs becoming scarce, this program encourages young people to learn entrepreneurial skills (finding business opportunities, analysis, decision making, communicating, marketing, product design, and creating competent teams of collaborators) combined with the latest technologies on the market now, such as search engines, social networking, wikis, blogs (text and video), collaborative software, and Web 2.0 to 4.0 technologies.

The E-U21 Club has announced that it will take part in the Focus Magazine Competition called “WE 2010 – Think Future, Take Responsibility!”, using the Entrepreneur@School program as its entry. The competition is aimed at discovering ideas and programs that will have a profound effect on our society in the near future.

The E-U21 Club believes that its entry will revolutionize the field of education, shifting the focus from teaching to learning, turning teachers from disseminators of information to mentors, facilitators, and managers of learning environments. Students will both collaborate and compete, honing their communication and presentation skills, and focus on projects in traditional and social entrepreneurship to make a living while simultaneously addressing social, technical, environmental, and economic issues that affect societies now and in the future.

Of major importance in both the program and the Focus Competition is the emphasis on taking responsibility, the idea that young people have a stake in creating their own as well as their society’s future, and should not rely on parents or governments to formulate the future for them, but become actively involved.

To select the winners of the Competition, the Focus jury will evaluate the content and ideas of the entry, its practical relevance, how well the live presentation was made, and how effective the website of the participating team is to convey the message of the project in clear and easily understandable terms.

Teams selected for the live presentation in Berlin will be announced in early April 2010. The winner will be chosen from the 20 teams that will present.

The E-U21 Club is inviting parents, teachers, companies, and anyone interested in supporting the Club, financially or in kind, to contact! Corporations are invited to adopt the Entrepreneur@School program and the E-U21 Club as part of their corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities. Please contact ….. for further information!

Düsseldorf, February 2010

Let’s Move Something

With impressively simple words did Michael Jastram make his point. Tribe (a movement) functions along the following principles: You have a story Tell it and link with other people Take the leadership Achieve thus a transformation Not really new and therefore the more surprising. It seems that all movements (tribes) can be reduced to this simple formula. Let’s start a new movement – there are people out there waiting! Seth Godin, marketing pioneer, did not develop this formula in his bestseller “Tribes”. For more information on Seth Godin >here. A polarizing presentation that prompted a lot of thinking and food for discussion.

How does Africa Work?

14 students from the Max Planck Gymnasium of Düsseldorf made a trip to Marianhill, South Africa, toward the end of 2009 to help in a project of “Aktion Lichtblicke” of Düsseldorf. The aim was to build a house for the poorest of the poor. Working in high temperatures and with blisters on hands and feet, they did manage to achieve a respectable result. Still, the concept of house cannot be compared with Western standards. A simple brick hut was built, without any beautifications as we would be used to. No, bare and simple, but still much more comfortable when compared to the neighbours’ houses. It was also necessary to prevent any neighbourly jealousy from arising as, in a worst case, the “neighbours” will simply tear down the new house. One cannot really speak of “neighbours” as these single huts are spread across the countryside.

The desperate poverty of the people becomes obvious when one is told that a simple cable has to be buried deep into the earth so that it is not stolen. Huts where nobody resides for more than 14 days are taken over by other dwellers in the village.

Here possession is key: he who lives in a hut is also the owner of the hut. An excellent presentation giving an insight into an enterprise that hopefully will have many other imitators among our youth and that will give food for thought. The overall Africa Project is available online at >here (german), if you want to know more. A reflective presentation, giving much insight into an Africa that is hard for us to imagine. And therefore, the guests did not get tired even though the presentation by students Oliver Muller-Lorey and Max Paumen went over time.

Of Successful Sisters

Brigitte Klose Grigull and her partner from Cologne demonstrated the theme „Sisters“ from a totally different and unusual viewpoint. Since 1999, the association “BigSister e.V.” links “big” girls and “little” girls and successfully turns them into “sisters”. The result: girls of up to 16 years of age get a big sister. Although not a biological one in the normal sense, nevertheless like a sister with whom one can discuss everything as if she were a real sister. The big sister (one looks for a mature woman) is there for the little sister, answering everyday questions and supporting her.

The secret of the success: as a rule, the minimum age difference between big and little sister must be 6 years. Only in this way can the older sister support the younger one with the big questions of life. A moving presentation, complete with a TV report, made the engagement even more real for the excited public. And who knows, perhaps BigSister e.V. will soon be able to talk about successful brotherhoods as well. The first contacts were already made at this YouCan Talk event!

Overall, we felt that the event achieved its objectives: we tank all our guests and presenters for their participation and already look forward to the next YouCan Talk event in Düsseldorf on May 5th 2010.

Dimitris Stais, Dr. Yiannis Kontos, Johannes Müller

THE EVENT

The first YouCan Talk was the reason. The second YouCan Talk was the proof. More and more people wish to talk in Athens, Greece!!!! The atmosphere was festive, the speakers brilliant, the audience warm and the outcome.... a big success that promises an even more interesting future!!

The purpose of the second YouCan Talk event was to give even more people the chance to expand their circle of acquaintances, exchange ideas and obtain knowledge on a variety of subjects. The three wonderful speakers, Dimitris, Yiannis and Johannes shared with all of us valuable personal experience that not only lived up to the expectations of the event, but also succeeded in arousing the interest of their new friends!!!

When the speeches were over, everybody had the chance to have a snack and approach the speakers for further discussions. What prevailed was everyone΄s smile, satisfaction and eagerness to attend and more actively participate in the following YouCan Talk!!!

THE SPEAKERS

Dimitris shared precious moments of his personal life that have had a tremendous impact on his beliefs and attitude. A multitude of events and a variety of feelings have helped him adopt a very optimistic and positive way of dealing with problems that may sometimes seem insurmountable. Dimitris sustains, and everybody agreed with the notion, that if we let go of our negative feelings, we΄ll be happier and make others happy, too. All we have to do is...CANCEL everything negative!!!! Dimitris, thank you for reminding us how wonderful it is to be human and how precious it is just to offer each other warm hugs and smiles!!!

Yiannis told us stories, and used evidence to prove the undeniable excellence of the human brain, its capacity and the way all functions of which are implemented in systems that support artifical intelligence. He illustrated, as briefly as possible, the potential of our minds making it clear to everyone that the more we acknowledge and use our intelligence the more we can implement its aspects in all means of scientific improvement. Yiannis thank you for making us realize the wonders we can accomplish with words, imagination and consciousness.

Johannes proved to us that the battle between good and evil is not only apparent in our actions and everyday lives but has also conquered music. Inspired by this perpetual fight, Johannes converted his feelings to sounds, passionate music to demonstrate the two so powerful and contradictory aspects. His music, and overall his presentation was captivating. Thank you for sharing this treasure with us, Johannes!!

Brigitte Nagel Brigitte Nagel demonstrated how attitudes and behaviour can change instantly depending on the situation or view one takes at that moment. She did this by means of the Improvisation Theatre. The two roles – student and lecturer – were played by 2 guests from the audience. Theme: the lecturer believed that the student had submitted a paper that was not written by him. In short intervals, the two actors slip into each other’s role. Immediately, the body language, gestures and articulation change, depending on whether the actor is the accuser or the accused. An impressive example that showed us much about our behaviour. 

Markus Berger Markus Berger kidnapped us into the world of words with incredible verbal acrobatics. Just the word “gehen” (to go) has so many variations (striding, wandering, strolling, walking, running) and other idiomatic expressions showed us in humorous and impressive ways the treasure of language. It became obvious to everyone how important communication is. A presentation that prompted a lot of reflection.

Bigga Rodeck presented her "Spending-Marketing” concept, , which surely will soon have a lot of imitators. The beneficiaries of this initiative, Integrationskita Fuggerstraße e.V, can be pleased with the amount of 1,200 Euros. The next initiative in December 2010 will take place in Düsseldorf in support of the Centre for Breast Cancer and Breast Health “Zebra”.

After the presentations, a stimulating exchange took place in a comfortable environment. And we look forward to the next YouCan Talk in Essen on March 9th.

The EU21Club looks after the project Entrepreneur@School with assistance from Wilfried Ifland (Chairman of YouCan Trust). About 20 students found their way into the Hall and made remarkable presentations. Within a 90 minute time window, the students managed to show how the actions and thoughts of entrepreneurs provide insight into the complexity of the modern world. In addition, they demonstrated the most modern tools, such as Google Wave, and showed video clips how the world is changing through digitalization.

An emotional presentation with thoughts on their own future and on the possibilities reflected by the world of tomorrow. The Entrepreneur Spirit Day was professionally moderated by John David Seidler (media scientist) and Maximilian Kaiser (cameraman and video editor). Their movie clip will be published shortly. The next presentation of the e-U21Club is planned for March 2010. All interested students are most welcome to join the Club. Participation is free. Just >contact here!

The first projects were in Indonesia. I a small village, he installed showers, erected walls, and put tiles on the floor. In most villages, there was only naked soil. Infant mortality was correspondingly high due to inadequate hygiene. In order to ensure sustainability, YouCan Trust started to provide an education to the poorest of the young people. A total of 12 youths were mentored over several years. They thus obtained the prerequisites for determining their own life. Also small businesses, such as a Web Design Studio in Bali or a Hair Salon in Jakarta. All were achieved with the assistance and leadership of YouCan Trust.

Entrepreneur@School

In the second part of his presentation, Wilfried Ifland explained the latest project of YouCan Trust – entrepreneur@school – a project that teaches students how the world is changing, what the demands of tomorrow will bring. A complex subject that is not easy to explain, and especially not in a few minutes. Many things are interlinked, and also global perspectives were briefly touched upon. Yet there was sufficient material for lively discussions afterwards. What do the participating students learn, how is sustainability achieved? Especially interesting were the answers given by one of the participants in entrepreneur@school. For the moment, he and his “co-battlers” are more likely to be smirked at. However, that is a good omen! What did George Bernard Shaw, the Irish dramatist and satirist say: “What we need are a few crazy people; look how far normal people have brought us”!

Next YouCan Talk in Düsseldorf: Thursday, February 4, 2009

In connection with Global Entrepreneurship Week, the worldwide action week to promote entrepreneurial thinking and doing from 16th to 22nd November, the project group from the Annette-von-Droste-Huelshoff-Gymnasium in Duesseldorf presents the project „Entrepreneur@School“. More than 80 countries are participating in this global action week. The coordinators for Germany are: Wismar High School, IHK Villingen Schwenningen and MicroMountains Network e.V. Schirmherr in Germany; Dr Karl-Theodor Freiherr von und zu Guttenberg.

The Program

Learning, lifelong learning, and education are beconing more and more a personal responsibility. The technology of the 21st Century that can support this learning will be presented and discussed in a workshop by the students from Annette-von-Droste-Huelshoff Gymansium located in 19, Bruckner Street, Duesseldorf 40593.

Date: 16 November 2009

Agenda: 14:00 Arrival, networking, interviews and construction of a Wordl cloud around the theme Entrepreneurship by the students.

Part 1

14:30 Welcome, video clips and moderation

The Entrepreneuer@School AG presents „Entrepreneurship and Collaboration“ – presentation, slideshow, discussion

15:30 to 15:45: Break

Part 2

15:45 The top 10 tools for future entrepreneurs (slideshow and presentation)

16:45 Discussion, Q&A

17:00 End

Expected result: Demonstrating future challenges in study and profession

This is an open event – Participation is free.

We discussed till well after midnight! The main reasons for this were the presentations from Petra Fuerst and Mario Mueller. Unfortunately, Thomas Bergk had to cancel at the last minute, allowing me (Inga Palme) to present a brief overview of the latest news from YouCan.

Try it!

Not and none, two insignificant words, which our subconscious does not know and cannot do anything with. This has far-reaching consequences. Because that which we negate cannot therefore happen. From the attractive example of a strawberry, which we were “not” supposed to imagine – did everyone really have a wonderful strawberry in their mind’s eye. And that an attempt at failure could happen at the same time – nobody would have thought. What happens with me and us when it comes to handling others – how do I handle myself? A thrilling insight into behaviour and communications, perfectly presented by Petra Fuerst – Communications Trainer.

Who Am I?

This question was asked by Mario Mueller to an attentive audience and proceeded to give his basic details, like age, shoe size, address and such. But that was not enough. He showed us how much information we give about ourselves on the Internet. Often without thinking about the consequences. For instance, pictures of the latest drinking event published on one of the numerous social networking sites. These may be interesting for insiders but for one’s own career, they can be unhelpful or even close once open doors for ever. A potential danger, of which one should be aware. Handling self-created identities, which may be unreal, but in the virtual world nevertheless be accepted as genuine, can have an impact on our Self, whether personally or socially. A terrific presentation with polarizing positions, as was shown later in the discussions.

YouCan Trust

We were very happy about the success of YouCan Talk in Athens. Not only because the event will take place regularly in Athens from now on but also because Nitsa Choleva decided on her own to become the official partner for YouCan Trust in Greece.

We are proud that Jonas Zimmermann and a partner have received an invitation to the “Delphic Games” in Korea from 9th to 15th September 2009, to film a documentary. YouCan Trust will make the storage available for the Project Site on its own server. We remember: at the YouCan Talk on 12th February, the ambitious student of then 12th Year High School presented his film project “Das Leben ist kein Ponyhof”. To finish the movie, he needed another 750.00 Euros. That evening, the guest raised a total of 190 Euros by purchasing YouCan Trust “shares” and everything moved. More sponsors followed and soon the funding for the project was secured.

These are our goals: YouCan Talks in every corner of the world, and the international school “Entrepreneur@school”, which prepares young people for the future. The preparations for entrepreneur@school are already in full swing. Wilfried Ifland, chairman of YouCan Trust, will give a report at the next YouCan Talk in Duesseldorf on 5th November 2009. The other topics will be published shortly but we are happy to accept reservations now.

Cafe Gallery Art
The Adrianou Mail 33
Monastiraki

THE FIRST YOUCAN TALK IN ATHENS, GREECE, IS THE “TALK OF THE TOWN”!

On Friday 24th July, at 21.00 the first ever meeting abroud of YouCan Talk took place in Athens and the outcome lived up to the expectations of both the organizer Ms Claudia S and the participants. The audience consisted of a multitude of charismatic intellectuals and business people who were eager to further expand their knowledge on social issues and share their expertise with other individuals.

The first YouCan Talk speaker

was Ms Sandra Berwix, Senior Sales Consultant, Germany, who, being herself an active member of KRASS, gave a brief but very concise presentation of the foundation’s mission and character. Sandra succeeded in conveying her enthusiasm to the audience, members of which did not hesitate to seek extra information regarding their potential active role in supporting the vision of KRASS in Greece.

The second speaker

was Ms Nitsa Choleva (nitsa.ch4ever@gmail.com), a Language Teacher and General Manager of the “New European Horizons”(www.neh.edu.gr) language school in Athens, Greece. She took the initiative to present her thesis concerning effective teaching and ways through which this can be achieved. Nitsa shared a lifetime experience that really altered her perspective of teaching by the book to making it to the students’ hearts. The speech was based on the moral: We should stop striving to teach children. We must start communicating with them. But first we have to train ourselves.

The third speaker

was Ms Persefoni Phoni, who shared her personal experience of adopting a child of a different background. She and her husband have been foster parents for more than six years and she wished to communicate her pride of having a wonderful son as well as the difficulties she and her husband encountered when they started the process of adopting a child. Her speech was one of optimism, love and devotion to the visions of children and sheer humanism. Therefore she rightfully gained the admiration and thunderous applause of the audience.

It was with great delight to realize that the first YouCan Talk event in Athens, Greece, went down well with the audience giving reason to sustain that it will only gain on popularity thus increasing the number of participants and speakers who will assist in conveying the organization’s social character.

Maybe we will see you at the next YouCan Talk Event in December 2009.
Best regards, Claudia
written by: Nitsa Choleva

Christian Benedict | www.hellgold.de
Martina Bruns | www.bruns-printen.de
Hartmut Hässig | www.haessig.eu
Bigga Rodeck | www.compusense.de
Petra Buchkremer | www.designpiloten.de

Many thanks!