Diverse impressions at Girls- and Boys' Day 2024

Colorful lights flood the room, some girls wear headphones and bob their heads up and down in concentration. After taking computers apart in the computer center in the morning, the girls are now trying out the sound and lighting technology in the media and information center. All the areas that the young people were able to register for in advance are about trying things out for themselves, making them tangible and accessible. The Future Day is well received. Even 11-year-old Juli, who has just operated the large lighting console, thinks the day is "pretty cool. It's also really great to get a taste of everything." The first step is for the children of university employees to register for Future Day at Leuphana. "After the end of the local registration period, the offer will be opened up to all pupils in the city and district of Lüneburg. The places are always in high demand," says Hannah Brandenburg, who has been organizing the Future Day for girls and boys at Leuphana since 2016. Juli also says "there are only five children in my class who haven't signed up for a Future Day somewhere."

It is important that so many students take advantage of the day, because "currently only just over 20 percent of all STEM students are female and only 16 percent of women work in STEM professions, i.e.  Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. In elementary school, on the other hand, only around 12% of teachers are male," says Hannah Brandenburg. So it wasn't just girls who had the opportunity to open up their perspectives; after an exciting Action Bound in the library, boys were also able to gain an insight into teacher training (particularly primary school teaching) through practical experience at the Institute of Ecology and the University Sports Center.

In addition to the official program, there are other interested schoolgirls on the Leuphana University campus today. Leah and Emilia stand excitedly in front of the lab. They put on their lab coats. "It's a bit big, do we have any smaller ones?". Once the right sizes have been found, there is a safety introduction, equipment is shown and safety goggles are put on. Tension turns to curiosity when Brigitte Urban, professor at the Institute of Ecology, brings out peat samples. "Can I take a photo?" asks the interested student, before she gets active herself and checks the degree of decomposition of the plant remains with the professor. "You can take this in your hands and crumble it," Brigitte Urban instructs the eighth-graders. She amazes the girls: in soil that is one centimeter deep, the soil is already ten years old: "Here at 10 cm, this is the soil of a hundred years ago, and here we are in the Middle Ages".

Girls'Day has been taking place since 2001 for pupils in grades 5-10 and is sponsored by the Federal Ministry for Families, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research.

All young people should have the opportunity to take part in Future Day, or Girls' Day and Boys' Day, even if they do not belong to the binary system. Officially, Boys' and Girls' Day is described as a "nationwide day of action for stereotype-free career guidance".