Member of the Executive Steering Committee, Commercial-Administrative Officer
Hakan Atalay
Member of the Executive Steering Committee
Commercial-Administrative Office
I am an industrial engineer with relevant professional experience in the fields of finance and project management. I am specialised in process development and optimisation as well as process and data analysis.
I am convinced that promoting digital media literacy contributes to strengthening a democratic Europe. Therefore, I have been working at the Foundation since 2013 in the area of adult education on the topics of volunteering, e-health, rural population and digital cooperation. I am passionate about working on new project ideas and training concepts while keeping a national and European perspective.
Culture, media, education - for me, these areas belong together. As a culture and media person, I am passionate about promoting media literacy and getting young people excited about the diverse possibilities of culture and media.
I like to combine academic and practical work. My topics are Social Commitment in a Digital World, Social Media, Smart Rural Areas, and Digital Communication and Participation.
Since 1999, I have been an idea generator and co-founder of the Digital Opportunities Foundation: I am passionate about people and their rights in the digital environment as well as about digital technologies, and I work in politics, economy and research to ensure that all people participate in the opportunities of the digital transformation of our society. My motto in life is: Learn from yesterday, live today, shape the future!
A positive focus on the possibilities of the internet is more important than ever. Growing up with the idea of a free internet for all, I have been passionate about various aspects of digital life for decades. As a social media manager, I worked for theatre for a long time. With the engagement for the Foundation, I am happy to be an active part of the Digital Transformation.
I strongly believe that strengthening people's media literacy enables their participation in civic and political life. Therefore, I have been working as a project consultant for Starting Point "Growing Up with Media" at the Digital Opportunities Foundation since 2019. I support people in learning and mastering a self-confident, reflected and responsible use of and engagement with digital media.
User experience and accessibility are important components to design a digital net for everyone. It must be simple, should make fun and should be used in a safe way by children, adolescents, people with special needs and elderly.
I want to stand up for digital equality, and equal opportunities are particularly close to my heart. Therefore, it is a concern for me to do my part to compensate for systematic injustices for all individuals, especially for young people. At the Foundation, I work in the "KulturPass" project and advocate for the possibility of greater participation of young people in cultural opportunities. I also do the communication for the project "ich.digital - Mach mit im digitalen Leben".
Since I completed my master's degree in social sciences in 2019, I have been a permanent part of the foundation and implement projects at national and European level. Thereby, the fight against disinformation and hate speech on the net is especially close to my heart. I love working with different people from young to old and empowering them according to their individual skills and preferences. With my work, I want to support them in participating in (digital) society in a media-competent, critically-reflective and creative way and in actively shaping it.
Coming from sociology and fine arts, I have been working in cultural education and cultural media education for many years, because cultural participation - and thus social participation - of children and young people is very important to me. First of all, as a visual artist, I aroused the creativity of children and young people directly. Later, as a "cultural agent", as an interface manager and process facilitator, I accompanied cultural cooperation and initiated cultural school development processes. Finally, in recent years, as project and team leader of the "Culture Agents for Creative Schools in Baden-Württemberg" program, I have implemented a large funding program for school cultural education and supported the participatory development of local cultural educational landscapes. For me, the KulturPass is a big step towards more cultural participation and I am committed to continuing and expanding it after the pilot phase - both for even more children and young people and for even more cultural providers, especially actors of cultural education in local educational landscapes.
As a further education consultant and trainer, it is my passion to create didactic settings that make learning fun for young and old alike. I also see myself as a teaching learner and love to constantly expand my knowledge and skills - especially in the digital field, which is constantly changing.
Growing up with digital media and social networks, I've always had an enthusiasm for the possibilities of networking and creative exchange, but I've also realized what dangers and challenges it creates. As a communications consultant, I want to connect this part, educate about critical issues, teach media literacy, and also create outreach so that the good and important work that is already being done at the foundation and the initiative becomes visible and audible.
I am a cultural scientist and linguist by profession and have been working in various projects in the non-profit sector since 2018, first as an intern in Istanbul and now as a project manager at the Digital Opportunities Foundation. I am particularly interested in international cooperation and forward-looking topics, including how to teach digital skills in the cultural sector in a sustainable way.
As a political scientist and child rights researcher, I am concerned with the conditions under which young people grow up. I am currently focusing on contexts with (digital) media and would like to make a contribution so that children and young people can use them independently, safely and with pleasure.
I am a homebound political scientist from the aging federal state of Schleswig-Holstein. Both as a volunteer football coach and professionally as a project manager, I travel the state and repeatedly face the challenges, but also the opportunities, of digitisation. If we want to use the latter for political participation processes, we first have to lay the foundations.
For me, education means participation. The digital revolution also entails social challenges. As an industrialized country, Germany has a duty to enable all social groups to participate. I have been active in this area for many years and have worked with both refugees and young people from large housing estates in Berlin. What is particularly important to me is a growth mindset, i.e. the attitude that 'mistakes' are part of a learning process and are therefore welcome intermediate steps.
Project Manager Child-friendly access to the Internet
Dr. Jennifer Lambrecht
Project manager in the research project
Child-friendly access to the Internet
The implementation of children's rights is a subject close to my heart. The internet was not made for children (just like the analogue world) and yet children have the right to participation, protection and support - also on the internet. I am involved in the project "Child-friendly access to the internet" so that these rights can be brought into a balance that is conducive to children's well-being. I am an educational scientist and have worked in in various research projects on quality development in educational institutions. I am also involved in the Reckahn Reflections on the Ethics of Pedagogical Relationships.
As a person who is enthusiastic about culture, it is particularly important to me to make diverse cultural offerings accessible to a broad audience. I find working on the KulturPass enriching because young people, regardless of their economic or social background, are invited to get to know culture locally.
I came to the Foundation as a project consultant for the Smart Hero Award. There, I am mainly responsible for project organisation and communication and support many projects and initiatives in gaining more visibility in society with their topics. Before joining the Smart Hero Award, I studied social sciences in Cologne and lived in Cairo for my final thesis, researching the impact of social networks on the Egyptian revolution.
Using the potential of digital media to create stimulating places for lifelong learning together with different people is my mission. In doing so people and their individual needs are always at the center of my work.
With great passion and dedication I do work on projects that offer children and young people new, equal access to education, media and culture. Therefore, I am very happy to be part of the KulturPass team, which aims to give young people - regardless of their economic or social background - the opportunity to experience culture live and directly.
Literature, theatre, concerts, exhibitions, cinema... My heart beats for all of these and I believe that one cannot start early enough to convey what exciting possibilities our cultural landscape has in store. Besides my private passion for the arts, I also studied literature and have since worked in various areas of the cultural and educational sector. As a project consultant with the KulturPass, I want to work to strengthen the cultural sector, to make it easier for as many young people as possible to access this diverse, colourful world and to awaken their enthusiasm for all that there is to discover there.
Trying out and experiencing media, not just consuming them - that's what I want for young and old. I have been working on this since 2013 in various projects of the foundation. To this end, I create (online) training courses and advise and network people and organisations nationwide who want to experience media literacy locally.
I am a research assistant at the Foundation and a doctoral student in media studies at the University of Tübingen. I do research in the field of mediatisation and want to support people in actively and self-determinedly shaping the media change.
As a cultural economist, the topics of equal opportunities, digitization and culture are particularly close to my heart. Therefore, I am happy to be part of the KulturPass team. What motivates me most about the KulturPass is to give young people equal access to cultural activities.
For me, cultural work is primarily about making it more accessible to different social groups. That is why issues such as equal opportunities, solidarity and intercultural exchange are especially important to me. And these are themes I try to implement in my job as a communication consultant for KulturPass, in order to inspire young people for culture and to give them the opportunity to participate in shaping the cultural landscape.
I want people of all ages and in all life situations to be able to act confidently in the digitalised world. It is also important to me that organisations seize the opportunities of digitalisation and digitality. Therefore, I enjoy supporting people and organisations in the reflective, creative and safe use of media.
As project consultant for the KulturPass, it is a personal concern of mine to get young people excited about the cultural diversity in our country. Through theatre, concerts, museums and other cultural offerings, they can not only develop their personalities, but also broaden their understanding of other ways of life and perspectives. With the KulturPass, we enable all young people, regardless of their financial background, to participate in and benefit from these activities.
Communication, culture and social issues have always fascinated me. For this reason, I studied political science and communication in an intercultural environment. As a communications adviser for the KulturPass, I am excited to apply my interest to important social issues such as unequal access to culture and the digital divide, while trying to inspire young people from all social spheres to join the KulturPass.
Growing up in a village and feeling that no one around you is like you. Since the advent of social media and digital media that connect us globally, thankfully this sensation belongs to the past. For me, one of the fantastic achievements of the digitalized world is that in particular marginalized groups have access to information, communities and participation. Since 2016 I have been working at the Digital Opportunities Foundation to achieve this, mostly developing and strengthening projects for young people.
I'm passionate about diversity, climate change and factuality in the digital public sphere. I studied Political Communication, English and Media Studies in Tübingen, Berlin and Melbourne.
I am passionate about the opportunities and challenges of rural areas. That is why I am committed to strengthening digital participation and new forms of civic engagement in the Digitale Dörfer Niedersachsen project and combine a scientific focus with the joy of adult education in my work.
As an artist and aspiring cultural anthropologist, I am deeply inspired to supporting the Digital Opportunities Foundation and the Federal Ministry of Culture — in helping future generations to explore and discover the rich and diverse cultural landscape that Germany has to offer. In doing so, I am pursuing both a personal and a professional goal: using innovative means and timeless values to create inclusive new spaces and opportunities for people to get to know themselves, each other — and the world around them.
Through my work at the Digital Opportunities Foundation, I have learned a lot about children's rights and the digital environment, which I can also apply in my social science studies. Since I grew up bilingual (German and English), I am responsible for many translations in the project "Child Protection and Children's Rights in the Digital World".
What am I doing? voluntary service What do I like to do? writing, research, reading, planing Why am I interested in this foundation? Digitization has caught up with us in recent years and decades, and many people are not even aware of the opportunities and risks of new media, although there is so much potential in modern technologies. Since this potential must be tapped and everyone should be given the opportunity to use it with the necessary digital competence, I am happy to start here as a volunteer.
Children have a right to participation and support also in the digital world. Unfortunately, the internet can be a very dangerous place for children. As a student assistant in the project "Child-friendly access to the internet", I would like to contribute to ensuring that children can exercise their right to participation and support in a safe and secure environment.
Individual specific living conditions and challanges are part of my interestfield in the Master’s programme Diversity Studies, also in respect of the digital world. Further, due to personal experiences I rate the use of digital possibilities in rural areas as valuable for our society. Therefore, I am happy to be part of a project that can reinforce villlage communities and works on everyday solutions for citizens.
Being a village child myself, I know how important cohesion is in one's own region. Especially in the digital age, it is all the more important to strive for new opportunities for participation and to promote the participation of local people. That's what I learned in my political science studies. With my work in the Digital Villages Lower Saxony team, I try to contribute to exactly that.
The KulturPass is intended to give young people the chance to rediscover the cultural offerings in their region. The credit gives them the opportunity to do this regardless of basic financial requirements. Young people can benefit from this just as much as cultural providers. I hope that with our work in community management we can support both groups in making the best possible use of what is on offer and thus contribute to more equal opportunities in cultural participation.
The Internet has shaped me to the extent that everything I personally recognize as valuable skills within my interests, such as art, politics and social discourse, I learned almost exclusively there. But that took time, a lot of self-control and know-how, which I also often didn't have in the beginning and therefore got lost in weird sites and content. I would like to be someone who could pass on this know-how to others, for a better understanding among each other and also for my own further development. That's why I think SDC and their projects are just very well suited for that.
On the way after school to my studies, I found myself in museums, theaters, galleries and several castle parks. Creative work and thinking need space and people who fill these spaces. With my studies of art with focus on "museum" I would like to take a step towards cultural mediation. Art brings people closer together and can express itself across languages and cultures. I am interested in creating access to all the diverse cultural offerings that are sometimes more difficult to access for some groups of people than for others for various reasons. According to the motto: Everyone should have the space to move something and to be moved by something.
I support the foundation as a working student in the area of social media for two projects. My master's degree in German Studies is ideally expanded by working in the editorial area. Since I work on a voluntary basis myself, I find it very important to have a digital representation for volunteering and to support various projects within in their outreach and work. In the "Growing Up with Media" project, I can also help to inform and educate young adolescents about media usage.
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