German Fulbright Alumni Association Announces 2013 Mulert Award Winner Sherief El-Helaifi January
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
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Posted by: Sarah Sears
(PRLEAP.COM) The German Fulbright Alumni Association is pleased to announce that this year's Juergen Mulert Memorial Award on Mutual Understanding
is bestowed to Sherief El-Helaifi and the project "Schuelerpaten
Berlin". The Mulert Award is given annually to volunteers, artists,
professionals, or researchers across disciplines whose work reflects and
advances Senator Fulbright's idea of "waging peace through mutual
understanding". The award will be presented on February 2, 2013, at the
German Fulbright Alumni Association's annual Winter Ball in Hannover,
where Sherief El-Helaifi will be a guest of honor and present the
"Schuelerpaten" project.
El-Helaifi, currently a B.A. student at the Berlin Institute of
Technology, spent a Fulbright exchange year at the University of
California at Berkeley in 2011/12, where he focused on Industrial
Engineering and Operations Research. "Schuelerpaten Berlin", which
El-Helaifi supported as co-founder, board member and head of public
relations, is a unique project which focuses on the process of cultural
exchange and awareness. Geared specifically to young people of Arabic
descent, "Schuelerpaten Berlin" organizes tutorings between mentors and
mentees. Mentors, usually university and doctorate students, are matched
with young people from Arab families. Tutoring takes place in the
privacy of the mentee's home, opening up a whole new world to the mentor
and facilitating intercultural education of both mentor and mentee.
Since its start in 2009, "Schuelerpaten" has created more than 220
tutoring partnerships and has thus been instrumental in broadening the
public discourse surrounding issues of integration in Germany. In 2013,
El-Helaifi plans to expand "Schuelerpaten Berlin" to the Ruhr region,
and later to other regions, as well. El-Helaifi, who himself has both
German and Arab roots, explains the need for such a program: "As the
child of a Muslim Egyptian father and a Christian German mother, I grew
up learning to appreciate and embrace two religions and two very
different cultures. Sometimes I felt that I was pressured to decide
whether I am Egyptian or German, although I just felt as both. But I
realized how hard it is to integrate if nobody takes you by the hand and
explains cultural differences."
According to Benjamin Becker, president of the German Fulbright Alumni
Association, "the idea of 'Schuelerpaten' is both simple and
revolutionary, and promotes the growth of volunteerism in Germany". The
statistics are testimony to the success of "Schuelerpaten Berlin": In a
survey conducted in 2011, over 68% of mentees said that their grades had
improved dramatically through the "Schuelerpaten" program. 79% had a
better understanding of school tasks, 79% had learned and incorporated
crucial organizational skills, and 74%, felt more self-confident.
Overall, 90% of the mentees surveyed were more than satisfied with their
mentors.
The Juergen Mulert Memorial Award on Mutual Understanding,
made possible by the German Fulbright Alumni Association, was
established in 2010 in memory of Dr. Juergen Mulert, scholar, poet,
inventor and Acting Director General of the German-American Fulbright
Program. Former Mulert Award recipients include Daniel Köhler and
Janosch Delcker.
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