A look at the practical side: Service programs at RBC
Girls Group: “Creating a safe place for young women”
RBC student Léna Gning created a new community service program in collaboration with the Freiburg-based association Pakt e.V. during the 2024-25 school year: Once a week, she and four other RBC students offered a space for girls and young women from various Freiburg neighborhoods and refugee shelters. Seven to ten girls between the ages of 7 and 14 took advantage of the offer last school year and found their way to the neighboring Haus 197 every Tuesday afternoon: They sang, baked, danced, or climbed together – always with the needs of the participants in mind. According to our intern Muna, who accompanied the group in April, the result was a place free of judgment, where social-emotional learning is at the forefront, everyone can be themselves, and female role models are explored. For Lena, who completed her International Baccalaureate in May, establishing this new service was an enriching experience: “My main goal for this CAS was to create a safe space, provide a female role model, and simply have fun. Each session was different, but always ended with learning the choreography to the song ‘Let there be peace’.”
Democracy Crew: Strengthening democracy
Another new service learning project: Since fall 2024, we have been cooperating with the organization “Democracy Crew 100%,” an initiative of Freiburg’s “Constituency 100.” Together with dedicated project coordinators, RBC students develop formats to make democracy and democratic processes more inclusive. To this end, they produced a video last school year, held workshops at schools, interviewed people in the city, and organized events to encourage young people to participate in politics. For RBC student Mitchelle, participating in the service is a matter close to her heart, as she was already committed to democracy before her time at RBC: “In an ideal world, we would all have the same rights and opportunities. We could all express our opinions, and we would discuss them and grow together. Everyone would feel like they fit in and have found their place. There would be more kindness, openness, and respect towards each other.”
Preserving the culture of remembrance: Cooperation with the new Nazi Documentation Center in Freiburg:
In April 2025, the Nazi Documentation Center in Freiburg officially opened its doors to visitors with the aim of examining the history of Nazism in the region. Since fall 2024, there has been a cooperation with the working group “Yesterday? Today! Remembering Nazi persecution in Freiburg” at the UWC Robert Bosch College. As part of their involvement in the “Stolpersteine” project in Freiburg, students researched the biographies of Holocaust victims in archives. Their findings have been incorporated into the exhibition, and the cooperation is to be expanded in the coming school year. In addition to historical research, the students maintain the more than 400 Stolpersteine laid in Freiburg, offer guided tours for fellow students or classes from other schools, and maintain the Stolpersteine website. To preserve the culture of remembrance on campus, the working group organizes vigils and readings, for example; in March, the group organized a visit to the Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp.
