Who are we?

We are an association founded by students, dedicated to promoting peace, international understanding, and a spirit of global unity and tolerance.

Our biggest project is the “International Student Week in Ilmenau” (also “ISWI”). This largest international student meeting of its kind in Germany has been held every two years since 1993 at the Technical University of Ilmenau. These meetings serve to promote tolerance towards other cultures by allowing students from completely different regions of the world to get to know each other and talk . For ten days they talk about current and important topics. They exchange opinions, discuss and try together to find solutions to existing problems. It is clear that with these student weeks we also want to set an example against racism and other forms of discrimination.

We have approximately 40 active members. Additionally, there are numerous inactive members who continue to support us. As we prepare for larger projects, many more volunteers join forces with us.

Our association is also the Local Erasmus Initiative at the TU Ilmenau. As LEI Ilmenau, our events also have the goal of preparing outgoing Erasmus students for their stay abroad. In addition, we want to bring incoming Erasmus students together with our events and integrate them into the intercultural campus.

ISWI e.V. has been a long-standing member of the District Youth Association (KJR). The KJR focuses its work on the promotion and further development of youth work in the district. It represents the interests of its members to the public, representative bodies and authorities. It is important for ISWI to ensure that all people live and work together, especially on the campus of the TU Ilmenau - but also to promote the exchange and support to foreign and German people. At ISWI e.V., we regularly bring this interest into the district youth group. There we work with other associations and initiatives, share our projects and also receive great support from the other member associations in organizing our International Student Week.

We are also part of the SOrCE network (Students Organizing Conventions Everywhere), in which we are teaming up with various associations and institutions that organize conferences and festivals similar to the ISWI. The goal of founding this network was to create a basis for collaboration, to help each other organize and to learn from each other. SORCE is a loose network - it has no leader or board - SORCE is wherever one of its members is. Maybe one day this will change and a real organization will be formed. But so far the few attempts to found such a “real” organization have not been realized (also because the staff of the various associations is constantly changing.