Monthly Update: November 2017

Dear Kiron Family, 

Read about the latest Kiron insights!

This is the season to be jolly, thankful and giving! This month encompassed what it means to be a part of the Kiron Community: from bringing together Kironistas, Kiron students, partners, sponsors, family and friends from all over for our Community Weekend, to uniting forces on Giving Tuesday in efforts to support our amazing students and even encouraging strangers in more than five cities on a wild goose hunt in search of our student story calendars! A warm and cozy Community Weekend of networking, idea sharing and supporting one another in Berlin coupled with student-inspired story calendars are giving all of us in the Kiron Community a little extra to be thankful for as we turn the corner into the final stretch of the year, that without a doubt, will help keep all of us a little bit warmer in lieu of the incoming winter weather!

Best Regards, Your Kiron Team



NOVEMBER ANNOUNCEMENTS

• Kiron Community Weekend in Berlin
• Learning Agreement with Wawasan Open University
• New Academic Partnership with University of Jena
• New Partnership with Volkswagen
• Kiron and Volunteer Vision Joins Forces for Mentoring Event

KIRON INSIGHTS


Successful Kiron Community Weekend in Berlin
It was a cold, grey day in November that Kiron students, staff, volunteers, NGOs and other external partners came together in Berlin to fill the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth, ZEIT-Stiftung and Allianz Kulturstiftung sponsored Community Weekend with life. During these amazing days, about 100 people enjoyed a broad variety of workshops about storytelling, diversity and discrimination, the challenges of digital volunteering, mental health and transfer to German universities - just to mention a few. The vivid evenings were filled with an exciting theatre project “Letters 2 Europe”, with music, delicious food and great talks. A student summarizes: “(...) Big thanks and appreciation for Kiron’s staff and volunteers who really showed great welcoming and their passion in helping others, proficiently from the first step of sending us invitations to their follow up, welcoming event, the organized workshops and finally the nice warmly evening that we spent together. All of that made me feel that we were a big family together. I am also thankful to Kiron’s students who participated and shared me their smiles, their jokes, their stories and their hopes for the future and sometimes their philosophy in life, wishing them the best of luck in achieving their goals using what we have already learnt in this weekend beside the hope and the positive energy that we got from Kiron’s Staff. (...)” We are thankful for all the wonderful people who came together and made this a successful and enjoyable weekend, especially to our project sponsors  BMFSFJ (as part of the program “Demokratie leben!), Allianz Kulturstiftung and ZEIT-Stiftung.



Kiron Student Published his First Book!
Congratulations Yousuf! We are very proud and happy to announce that our Kiron Student Yousuf has written and published his first book: Second Chance: From Somalia to Germany! - "Money was all they cared for and they would do anything to squeeze it out."

Kiron Publishes Academic Quality Handbook
Kiron has published a handbook about its academic processes and quality standards. This document is intended for partners to understand what principles guide the creation and implementation of Kiron’s MOOC-based curricula. The handbook will also be relevant to interested higher education experts. Read more and download the Quality Handbook here.



MEET OUR STUDENTS

Alaa
As a Muslim girl I was taught to thank God in all situations, because in our faith being thankful means you are a true believer and Allah, “God” will give you even more. But I never felt this very deeply until the revolution in my country started. And then the revolution turned into a war. It was then that I really began to understand how to be thankful for everything. I graduated from high school in 2014. I used to have to study by candlelight because the electricity would only come on for one or two hours a day. I felt really thankful for having candles. There were others who could not afford them. Then a bomb fell on the elementary school – for no damn reason. Read Alaa’s full story here. 


MEET OUR KIRON FAMILY
This Month Kiron Introduces: Julia
With her warm smile, caring spirit and special way of hugging Kironistas on a daily basis, it is no wonder that Julia is so often referred to as “Kirons Mum”. Growing up in a small town near Augsburg, her journey with Kiron began in Bavaria. Starting with her passionate work for a youth organization, Julia always felt the need to help and empower others. This path led her to study Psychology in Konstanz and later on follow a Master Program in Applied Psychology in Toronto, Canada. During her studies in Canada, she started to be interested in social businesses: she volunteered for the social organization Options for Homes in Canadaand wrote her master thesis back home in Munich at FamPlus, a platform that supports families with childcare. Then Julia found Kiron and Kiron found Julia during the founding months of Kiron in 2015. With the exceptional situation at Munich central station during that time, Julia soon decided to build up Kiron’s first regional group Kiron Munich. Having joined Kiron as one of the first team members, she not only helped to set up Kiron Munich, but established Kiron’s Mentoring- and Buddy-Program, took the lead for Kirons Student Services and today puts her big heart into managing Kirons Human Resources. Read the interview with her to find out more about her journey and why she will leave Kiron in March 2018. Read Julia's Story...



KIRON INTERNATIONAL

Kiron at World University Service Canada Conference
The Country Manager Jordan and contact person for UNHCR´s Connected learning in crisis consortium had the pleasure to be invited as a panelist to the annual round table of the World University Service Canada (WUSC) and evening reception with yhe UN High Commissioner for refugees, Filippo Grandi.

Kiron Jordan Officially Registers Office
In fall 2016, the Kiron headquarter, together with the Jordan Team, decided to arrange for the local registration of the Kiron office in Jordan, to formally start the operations there. In the last week of November 2017, the process finally resulted in a successful registration of the jordanian branch of Kiron in Amman, Jordan. We are very excited to officially welcome our Jordan team to the collection of Kiron offices!

KIRON PARTNERSHIPS

Learning Agreement with Wawasan Open University
Kiron continues to expand its partnerships with a new learning agreement with Wawasan Open University. Wawasan Open University has agreed to work with Kiron’s Computer Science study track, helping Kiron expand and provide more flexibility and options for students. 

New Academic Partnership with University of Jena
We at Kiron are happy to announce that the University of Jena has signed a cooperation agreement with Kiron in order to encourage and enable a smooth transition process to regular programs for refugees.

New Partnership with Volkswagen Group
We are excited to announce that Kiron has concluded a new partnership with Volkswagen Group. In addition to granting 100 scholarships for engineering and IT students in 2016, Volkswagen is now enabling 50 refugee women to get into higher education and is thus a strong partner for women empowerment. Sven Fund, CEO of Kiron, expresses his enthusiasm for this cooperation in the following way: "Kiron has been teaming up with strong partners from the private sectore from the very beginning. With this new cooperation, Volkswagen is sending a strong message to supporting women, refugees and higher education. We are very much looking forward to this new partnership"

Kiron Celebrates One Year of Partnership with edX
This month we would also like to recognize and thank our partner edX for over a year of successful cooperation! Together with edX we are able to better support and provide refugees worldwide with access to quality higher education.



KIRON PROJECTS

MEnt Launched Second Call for Ideas
After Kiron's successful first edition of the MEnt program - designed to inspire and equip aspiring migrant and newcomer entrepreneurs with vital business skills to help kickstart their own businesses - the application period is currently open again! From January to April 2018, MEnt will offer a series of workshops by business experts, networking activities, mentoring by experienced entrepreneurs as well as community building events in Berlin and Brussels. Apply for the Call for Ideas by the 15th of December 2017.

GIZ Progress Evaluation
The Project Kiron implemented together with the GIZ in Jordan during the Summer in 2017 was evaluated by the Jigsaw Consult, a UK based social enterprise, helping NGOs, governments and international organisations to enhance outcomes through applied research and evaluation. In different workshops with the GIZ and Kiron teams, participating students, as well as Trainers and Tutors, the project life cycle was reflected on and evaluated. 


KIRON EVENTS


Kiron and Volunteer Vision Joins Forces for Mentoring Event
Kiron and Volunteer Vision held a joint mentoring event on 25th of November. Mentors and mentees were invited to share their experience of participating in the Volunteer Vision/Kironmentoring program, kindly supported by the business community of Berlin (Berliner Wirtschaft) and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. Kiron mentees and ten mentors from Berlin-based businesses, including Capgemini, Deutsche Bahn, Kienbaum, and METRO, came together at the Spreewerkstätten/Migration Hub in Berlin to develop recommendations for the advancement of the program. Following the workshop, participants were invited to mingle with Kiron students, volunteers and Kiron staff.


Kiron Contributes to Challenge Program of European IDEA League Research Universities
Kiron head of German academic partnerships Ronny had the pleasure to contribute to the European IDEA League workshop sessions on "Social Responsibility and Innovation", where students learned about social responsibility in universities and the basics of human-centered design through a hands-on design thinking challenge, hosted at the partner university RWTH Aachen.

Kiron Joins Kiron Hochschulforum Digitalisierung Stakeholder Dialogue
Co-Founder, Vincent, took part in the Hochschulforum Digitalisierung Stakeholder Dialogue for its kick-off meeting to foster exchange on the possibilities and solutions for innovative learning in the digital age, considering non-traditional student target groups such as refugees. Kironjoined the discussion as one of several representatives of institutions and groups that are recognized as particularly important to the work of the University Forum.

#GivingTuesday
On November 28th Kiron celebrated #GivingTuesday, a global day of giving. We thank you all for supporting our students with your donations and for believing in higher education for refugees. Without your support Kiron would not be possible! Join our Holiday Campaign #Wish4Education - support our students & make a wish come true! 



Workshop on Labour Market Integration of Refugee
On 21 November, Kiron took part in a workshop on labour market integration of refugees and asylum seekers at the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology. Together with other NGO and relevant public sector representatives, Kiron looked at measures like education and volunteering to facilitate the integration of refugees. A special focus was put on women empowerment - a topic that Kiron will pay close attention to in 2018.

Student Story Calendar Hunt
Since #GivingTuesday was all about Giving! We also wanted to give something back to you and created an exciting Student Story Calendar Hunt in four different countries and five different cities! With 24 exciting student stories waiting to be discovered all over Berlin, Munich, Paris, Brussels and Amman! We thank our partners the Bundesministeriums für Familie, Senioren, Frauen und Jugend (BMFSFJ), Allianz Kulturstiftung and Zeit-Stiftung for sponsoring our Student Story Calendar and helping our students to share their stories. You can follow our online Student Story Calendar with a new story waiting for you everyday!





KIRON IN THE NEWS

• Hochschul-Bildungs-Report 2020: ‘Es Dauert Viel Zu Lange, Bis Flüchtlinge An Die Universität Kommon Können’
• Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF): Kiron: Hochschulbildung für Geflüchtete 
• Der Tagesspiegel: Immer mehr Geflüchtete nehmen reguläres Studium auf
• Was macht Google für gemeinnützige Organisationen?: 'Frag doch Google' #8
• tbd*: Social Innovators To Watch Germany 2017
• Digital Female Leader Award 2017: Hila Azadazoy, Head of Academics & Shareholder | Kiron Open Higher Education | Nominiert in der Kategorie Social Hero

KIRON DOODLE