A special visitor comes to ReDI School
In most ways it was an ordinary Tuesday morning outside the kloeckner.i building in Berlin: rainy, cold, and dreary skies overhead. But inside the building, ReDI School’s new space buzzed with anticipation. The room was filled that day not only with students and staff, but also reporters, political aides, and others, all gathered to welcome perhaps the school’s most notable visitor to date: Angela Merkel.
The German Chancellor visited that morning to learn about ReDI School for Digital Integration, a small endeavor to support newcomers in Germany that had grown unprecedentedly in the past year.
Standing in front of more than 100 students, instructors, reporters, and others, Anne Kjaer Riechert, CEO of ReDI, and Gisbert Rühl, CEO of Klöckner & Co., jointly introduced Chancellor Merkel to the school and to students Mouhammed Abdulkareem and Rami Rihawi. Abdulkareem, a young software engineer from Iraq, inspired the idea for ReDI School nearly two years ago after meeting Riechert at a refugee camp festival.
“I said to Anne…I want to keep studying, I want to find a job. I still have many dreams here in Germany,” Abdulkareem told the Chancellor. “But unfortunately I was without a computer.”
Riechert told the audience that she knew there had to be a way to support Abdulkareem, as well as thousands of other refugee newcomers who were in need of not just computers, but also digital skills, mentors, and job experiences. “Of course,” Riechert said, “a computer alone is not enough.”
And thus the idea for a tech school for newcomers was born. ReDI School, founded by Riechert and Ferdi van Heerden in January 2016, launched with just 42 students in six classes. Today it supports more than 130, all of whom are enrolled in three-month courses on topics like Robotics, Entrepreneurship, and Basic Web Development, and many of whom graduate with jobs and internships gained through ReDI connections.
Rihawi, the second student introduced to Merkel, is perhaps the ultimate embodiment of the type of success ReDI can enable. A member of ReDI’s very first class, Rihawi was able to intern at kloeckner.i last year thanks to the network he accessed through the school. He has since gone on to join the company as a full-time Klöckner & Co. employee and, as he told Chancellor Merkel, hopes to continue his studies in Germany, a dream supported by his colleagues at Klöckner & Co.
The importance of having access to a network outside the “newcomer bubble” was underscored in a subsequent round table discussion with ten students from ReDI’s Cisco-sponsored Internet of Things course, where students explained how hard it is to gain access to jobs and internships if they only know others in the same circumstances as themselves. The Chancellor was also interested in hearing about other bureaucratic barriers these newcomers face, particularly the fact that they are required to pass high-level German exams before applying to technical Master’s degrees, despite the programs themselves being in English.
“While many challenges for refugee newcomers are not easy to fix, Chancellor Merkel recognized that this particular barrier could easily be addressed.” said Claus Schaale, the course instructor and moderator of the discussion. “Her staff took notes and it was clear that she was genuinely interested in finding ways to simplify the obstacles newcomers like our students often face.”
Following the class demonstration, Chancellor Merkel joined a panel discussion moderated by ReDI cofounder Ferdi van Heerden featuring three ReDI students/instructor pairs. The panel aimed to demonstrate two things: Firstly, that success comes from dialogue, which is why both teachers and students were on the panel, and secondly, that success has many destinations, which is why it featured students who went on to launch a startup, find employment, or continue with their studies.
Carsten Johnson, a ReDI mentor from Cisco, noted on the panel that the beauty of teaching digital skills is that “technology is like physics — it works the same everywhere.” A trained physicist, Chancellor Merkel fully understood; Even in the GDR, she said, “two times two equalled four.”
Throughout the conversation, van Heerden said, the energy in the room was “electric.” “The Chancellor has a very easy and natural composure and did not show stress or frustration in any way,” he said. “She has the calm certainty of a Buddha and the sparkle in her eye that drops a wry joke with precision timing.”
The Chancellor was particularly struck by comments from Luna Bandakji, who discussed the difficulties of being one of just a handful of women studying coding at ReDI. From her own scientific training, Chancellor Merkel said she understood deeply the challenges of being a woman in a male-dominated environment.
“She told me that she used to have a different approach to doing projects as the guys, and I could relate to that,” Bendakji said. “Her story made me believe that no matter how hard the road or how different you are, you just have to believe you can do it and you will achieve anything you want.”
Most noticeably, van Heerden said, she got all of the panelists speaking German. “She coaxed them out of their shell,” he said. “I think it will forever remain a massive achievement in their hearts that they could speak German to her.”
Others on the panel echoed this sentiment.
“I was amazed by her ability to draw out people’s personality with only one question and then let it shine in the best light,” said Tino Albrecht, Senior Solution Architect at SAP and a ReDI instructor, who spoke on the panel about careers in tech. “She really has helped our students to believe in their way and continue their individual path.”
The hourlong event concluded with thank yous from ReDI staff members Fadi Zaim, Paulina Muñoz, and Mireia Nadal Chiva. Zaim offered Chancellor Merkel a traditional wooden box from Damascus engraved with the words “Wir Schaffen das” (We can do it!).
Of course, in traditional ReDI-style, selfies had to be taken to memorialize the event. Dozens of students swarmed the stage to snap pictures with the Chancellor — photos which were quickly shared online and spread worldwide, including back home to family in Syria and other faraway places.
“I felt a little bit afraid before she came,” reflected ReDI student Jabir Abdulkareem after the event. “But when I saw her and the smile on her face, all fear and bad feelings inside me were gone. In that moment I was filled with happiness and peace.”
