European Mensa Juniors Camp (EMJC) 2025 in Duisburg, Germany

Dear Juniors of Mensa, Dear Parents,

The EMJC is an event for gifted kids aged 12 to 17. It is going to take place from the 17th of October 2025 till the 26th of October 2025. We will stay at the youth hostel "Jugendherberge Duisburg Landschaftspark" in Duisburg, Germany. Everybody is welcome to participate, independent of a Mensa membership or proof of giftedness.

We will spend three hours each morning in a project group. You can find a wide range of projects to choose from further down on this page. When signing up, please select the project you would like to participate in during the camp. The rest of the day will be spent with a varied program of sports, cultural and creative activities as well as excursions into the city and nature. Additionally, on two days we will take day-long trips to see more of Germany. You can find more information on the camp here: www.mensa.de/kiju/camps/emjc

The camp is offered by the non-profit foundation "MinD-Stiftung gGmbH" that is owned by Mensa Germany ("Mensa in Deutschland e.V."). It is organised and executed by volunteers from Mensa Germany and other national Mensa associations.

The participation fee is 480 EUR. The participation fee covers all the activities as well as the accommodation in the youth hostel with three meals per day: from dinner on the 17th of October 2025 to breakfast on the 26th of October 2025. As an additional support by the MinD-Stiftung for highly gifted children and teenagers, the participation fee is reduced to 450 EUR for those participants who provide proof of giftedness. Currently, proof of giftedness can only be provided through a Mensa membership or through a review of external IQ tests by our National Supervisory Psychologist for 25.00 EUR. The fee for the verification can be refunded in case of joining Mensa Germany. The verification must be received by us no later than four weeks before the start of the event. If you are a Mensa member outside of Germany, please provide the country in which you are a Mensa member as well as your membership number. If you are a member or guest member of Mensa Germany, you can leave the corresponding boxes empty.

The financial support funds "UFo" administered by the MinD-Stiftung supports participants who have difficulties to pay the participation fee by refunding the costs in parts or in full. If necessary, UFo can also support your travel expenses. If that is relevant to you, you can send an e-mail to the UFo committee at ufo@mensa.de. The committee is independent and works confidentially. You can learn more about the UFo at our website.

. Further information about the camp will be sent with an e-mail a few weeks before the camp starts. To ensure our messages reach you, it is important that you keep your e-mail address and other information under "Myself" → "My information" up to date. The e-mails will be sent to the address that is stored in the accounts of the registered participants. If necessary, we recommend that you regularly check the spam folder of your e-mail inbox.

The declaration of consent, German version, is absolutely necessary for a complete registration.

Registration start (start of pre-booking): 02th of August 2025 12:00 GMT+2
End of pre-booking: 16th of August 2025 23:59 GMT+2
Confirmation of participation: 17th of August 2025
Direct booking of remaining spots: 18th of August 00:01 till 16th of September2025 23:59 GMT+2

An in-depth explanation on our booking system can be found further down under the header "Information on our online booking system".

We look forward to seeing you in Duisburg!
Paul for the EMJC team

The registration takes place in three steps.

1. Online-Reservation
Online reservations can be made until 16th of September 2025 using the form below. To apply for the camp it is necessary to sign up as an guest at the Mensa Germany website.
Please make sure to keep the telephone and e-mail information in the account of the person making the reservation up to date. We will send information to this e-mail address in advance. During the camp, the legal guardians should be easily reachable for us in case of an emergency. All boxes of the form are mandatory and a registration without complete information is not valid.
2. Declaration of consent
The registration is complete upon receipt of the printed and signed declaration of consent by post, e-mail or fax by 23rd of September 2025. If we do not receive a written registration one week after the reservation deadline, we will consider this as a cancellation of the reservation and refer to our cancellation conditions.
3. Booking confirmation
Invoices will be sent to all registered participants. With this we confirm the successful and complete registration for the event. To prevent unnecessary money transfers in case the registration or the camp have to be cancelled we will be sending the invoices late.
A separate booking is required for each participant. The booking status can be checked online in the "Events" → "Booked" section. We kindly ask you to refrain from inquiries regarding the booking confirmation until two weeks before the camp, provided that a confirmation of the online registration has been sent by e-mail.

Terms of participation

The leading team may carry out supervisory duties, make necessary decisions and take measures to prevent or minimise harm. The participants may leave the youth hostel in small groups (at least three persons) on their own for a limited period of time after approval by a leader. Participants who act careless or who do not follow the instructions of the leading team may be excluded from further participation in the event. The cost incurred as a result has to be paid in full by the participant or their guardian. The name, place of residence with postcode and country, and e-mail address will be made available to all participants so they can contact each other beforehand and plan their travel to the camp together. The participant may be photographed, and these photos may be used for the public relations of MinD-Stiftung and made available to the other participants.

Exclusion of liability: The MinD-Stiftung, its employees and the volunteers including the members of the leading team are not liable to the participant, unless damage is caused intentionally or by gross negligence. This exclusion of liability does not apply regarding injuries to life, body, or health.

The consent of a legal representative is required in written for participation. The following regulations apply, which serve to protect all participants, the leaders and the MinD-Stiftung. We ask the guardian to discuss these rules with the participant.

• The guardian ensures that they can be reached at the given phone number for emergencies for the duration of the camp (including arrival and departure times).
• Participants who intentionally or through gross negligence violate the instructions of the leaders may be excluded from further participation in the event. This usually occurs if there is a repeated violation, and the participant has been warned that the behaviour can lead to this consequence. A repetition or a warning is not required if the violation is serious, in particular if the participant leaves the group without permission or endangers their own or someone else´s life or health. The costs arising from that are to be borne in full by the participant or their guardian.
• From 22:00 o´clock onwards, participants are only allowed to enter their own room, in which they live during the event and only for the purpose of going to bed.
• After 22:00 o´clock participants can stay in the common rooms under supervision. The leader decides at their own discretion when the participants go to bed at the latest.
• The possession and consumption of alcohol, tobacco products, related products (including electronic cigarettes) and non-medical drugs is prohibited for all participants during the event.

Cancellation conditions

The registration becomes binding with our booking confirmation. Cancellation must be made in writing and requires the consent of a guardian in the case of minors. Cancellation fees will be charged. These are to be borne by you. It is recommended that you take out travel cancellation and interruption insurance. For each cancellation, a lump sum of 20.00 EUR will be charged to cover our administrative costs.

For cancellations after the closing date for registration for the event, the accommodation and other service providers already booked may charge us. These costs will be passed on to you in full. This can lead to the fact that even after a cancellation up to 100% of the participation fee must be paid by you. We would like to point out that the agreed cancellation costs will not be charged or will only be charged on a pro rata basis if you can prove in an individual case that MinD-Stiftung has suffered no loss or only a minor loss. If a participant from the waiting list moves up to the place that becomes free due to a cancellation, you will only have to pay the above-mentioned lump sum of 20.00 EUR for the cancellation.

MinD-Stiftung reserves the right to cancel the event in the event of low registration numbers or unforeseeable events. This may also happen at short notice before the start of the event. In the event of a cancellation by MinD-Stiftung, any amounts already paid will be refunded, provided that the reason for the cancellation lies within the responsibility of MinD-Stiftung. Otherwise, only a pro rata reimbursement will be made, deducting the costs incurred by MinD-Stiftung. In this case, you will still have to pay any unpaid amounts. Travel tickets already booked will not be refunded in any case. In all other respects, your expenses will not be reimbursed either.

MinD-Stiftung has the right to withdraw from the contract in case of important reasons in the person of the participant or in the person of the guardian. Important reasons can be considered, even before the event:

• A serious disturbance of the trust with MinD-Stiftung or with the supervisors at the event,
• the failure to send the filled and signed declaration of consent to the office in due time,
• a serious breach or repeated breaches of the rules of conduct and safety applicable at the event.

In the event of withdrawal, a pro rata refund will be made, if applicable, with deduction of any costs incurred by MinD-Stiftung. You will still have to pay any unpaid amounts up to the amount of the costs incurred by us. Tickets already booked will not be refunded in any case. In all other respects no reimbursement of your expenses will be made.

Data protection

Your data will be processed and stored electronically for the purpose of handling the event.

Name and contact details of the responsible persons: MinD-Stiftung gemeinnützige GmbH, Wandlhamerstraße 2, 82166 Gräfelfing bei München, phone: +49 89 86466251, office@mensa.de.

Data protection officer: Thorben Schulte, Schulte IT Consulting, Grenzweg 9, 31749 Auetal, schulte@schulte-datenschutz.de.

Purpose and legal basis of data processing: We process the personal data you have provided because you have registered to participate in an event.
The data is processed for the purpose of fulfilling the contract (Art. 6 para. 1 letter b GDPR) and regarding possible photos and publications on the basis of your consent (Art. 6 para. 1 letter a GDPR).

Recipients or categories of recipients of the personal data: Your personal data data will be passed on to other organisational units within Mensa Germany (Mensa in Deutschland e.V.) and MinD-Stiftung for the purpose of preparing and carrying out events, insofar as this is necessary (e.g. for the purpose of security checks). Your personal data will be transferred to third parties outside of Mensa Germany and MinD-Stiftung only if the transfer is necessary for the purpose of preparing and carrying out the event; this includes, in particular, the operators of the accommodation. It is pointed out that photographs and film footage can be accessed worldwide if published on the internet.

Duration of storage of personal data: Your data will be stored for a maximum of 3 months after the end of the event unless longer storage is necessary for the above-mentioned purpose of the processing or prescribed by Mensa Germany´s or MinD-Stiftung´s statute.

Your rights: If your personal data is processed, you have the right to obtain information about the personal data stored about you (Art. 15 GDPR). If incorrect personal data is processed, you have the right to have it corrected (Art. 16 GDPR). If the legal requirements are met, you may request the deletion or restriction of processing and object to the processing (Art. 17, 18 and 21 GDPR). If you have consented to the processing of your data (in this case: image recording and publication), you may revoke your consent at any time. All you need to do is send us an informal e-mail. The legality of the data processing carried out until the revocation remains unaffected by the revocation. Furthermore, you have the right to have data that we process automatically on the basis of your consent (e.g., photographs) or in fulfilment of the contract sent to yourself or to a third party in a common, machine-readable format (Art. 20 GDPR).

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact our office at +49 89 86466251 or office@mensa.de. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the competent data protection authority (Bayerisches Landesamt für Datenschutzaufsicht, Promenade 27, 91522 Ansbach, Germany, +49 981 531300, poststelle@lda.bayern.de)

Information on our online booking system

The booking is divided into two parts. A booking by lottery and a direct booking phase. All persons who register in the first phase are considered in the lottery procedure, so that it has no impact who registered first. The pre-booking phase lasts two weeks. After that, we allocate the places in a lottery procedure that is as fair as possible, always taking the following into account: Siblings are placed in the lottery pot together and are therefore allocated places in the same camp if available. Anyone attending this camp as the last possible camp before their 18th birthday will get a place, if possible. If you have any other special needs regarding the allocation of places, please contact emjc@mensa.de before 17.08.2025.

Anyone who registers after the 17.08.2025 will be booked directly, provided there are still places available.

Clicking on ‘Book’ will take you to an online form in which you must enter the usual information such as emergency numbers and project requests. On this page you need to click ´Continue´ and then you finish depending on the booking phase by clicking ´Confirm Reservation´ or ´Book with payment´. You will find a list of the projects you can choose from, including descriptions, a few paragraphs further down. In the later form, only the project titles will be visible, so please read through the descriptions here and make a note of the titles of the two projects that you would like to select as your first or second choice.

If there are no more places available for the camp, you will automatically receive a place on the waiting list when you book this event.

Projects

Title	Project Description
Pen & Paper Role Playing Games by Rhia	Have you ever dreamt of jumping into a story? Of not just being an idle observer, but making your own choices and accompanying the heroes? Pen & Paper RPGs, the most well-known one probably being "Dungeons & Dragons" (or DnD for short), offer that exact possibility. In DnD, you create your very own hero in a medieval fantasy world and unleash them onto the world that the Game Master created. Other games provide different settings. How would you like the "Stranger Things"-esque small-town mysteries with a retrofuturist twist of "Tales From The Loop", idyllic fables of talking animals in "Wanderhome", whimsical day-to-day life at a magical school in "Kids on Brooms", or the heroic superhero stories in "Masks: A New Generation", for example? In this project, we will get to know some of these games, play them together, and in doing that, are not only going to learn about developing interesting characters but also how to become the game master ourselves and craft a rich world, compelling villains, and epic adventures for our friends.
Audiovisual 101: From prompt to screen by Gui	Lights, camera, action! In this project, you´ll learn a bit more about how an audiovisual product is made and the steps it usually goes through to reach the screen, as well as the people involved to make the magic actually happen. But you won´t learn all that just in theory - you will learn by doing, too, as we´ll be making a small production* during the course of our project! *spoiler alert: it will most likely be a music video :) So bring your creativity, your clipboard (if you´re feeling fancy)... and lets roll!
Lego Robotics by Bo	Ready to make LEGO robots dance in sync? We´ll work on collaborative robotics using Pybricks! Expect 25% python theory and 75% hands-on, building awesome robots and coding them. Learn how they can talk to each other, understand protocols, and ensure their messages get through. Get set for some serious fun and teamwork! We will adjust the level based on what you already know so don´t worry if you are new to this.
Public Speaking by Thede	Do you want to learn how to go on stage and captivate everyone? How to give a speech lasting several minutes in which you effectively convey your message? How to end a speech in a way that leaves a concrete impact on your audience? We will train our public speaking skills with the help of the Youth Leadership Program of Toastmasters. We will explore how to communicate effectively and inspire and motivate others. Beginners to experts are all welcome, and everyone is guaranteed to learn something in this project. Perhaps most importantly, we will look into how to have fun on stage. I am looking forward to hearing you speak!
The European Union by Paul	The European Union - Why cucumbers are no longer allowed to be crooked and why Scots only play their bagpipes quietly In this project we get an overview of the structure of the European Union, who has to decide what and how the legislative process actually works. We will look at absurd regulations and understand what influence the European Union actually has on national politics and vice versa. We will also look at the four fundamental freedoms of the European Union and how they affect our everyday lives. By the end of this project, you will know what makes the Green Deal green, what the TFEU and IPCEI stand for and what exactly you need to do to live in Brussels or Strasbourg soon.
PlaySmart – Move Better. Play Better by Krissi and Gökcen	Ready to mix things up and get moving? PlaySmart gives you the chance to try out a variety of sports and movement-based activities – from classic team games to new, unexpected challenges. It’s all about having fun, getting active, and discovering what kind of movement works best for you. But we’re not just jumping into action. You’ll also learn how to prepare your body the right way – with warm-ups, cool-downs, and mobility exercises that help prevent injuries and keep you fit in the long run. Whether you already love sports or just want to explore different options without pressure – this is your space to move, try, learn, and enjoy. No experience needed. Just bring your sportswear, energy, and an open mind.
The relationship between mathematics and art by Kara	In this project we will explore the multifaceted and two-way relationship between math and visual images. Artists from all cultures and historical periods have been inspired by mathematical ideas, while mathematicians have relied on images to represent their thoughts and to help them make sense of the visible world. Over the week, we will look at several places where these two traditions have intersected. Topics will include visual representation of complex functions, fractals, the golden ratio, architecture and many others. Participants will have the opportunity to do mathematics, make art and be reflective about their experiences with both.