When the Excellence Center first opened its doors in 2018 at Steinweg 56, in Halle, Germany the breakfast room comfortably accommodated the initial five volunteers. As founder Rafat Shantir recalls, these modest beginnings were part of a broader vision—to start small and grow through excellent service. Six years later, that vision has become reality. A large team of volunteers, students, and employees now loads three vans with the furniture from Steinweg 56, preparing for the move to the Center’s new, larger location at Leipziger Straße 16, right in the heart of Halle. 

Even in the face of the unprecedented challenges of the last 6 years the vision for the center has persisted and even broadened. As the COVID-19 pandemic shut down international travel and in-person meetings just two short years after the center opened, the center adapted its work. With in-person learning disrupted by the pandemic, the Excellence Center stepped in to offer Nachhilfe or tutoring to students in the local Halle community. Receiving recognition and funding from the city of Halle, today the Center continues to serve local students in addition to exceptional international programs which have since resumed. 

Despite the disruption of the pandemic the international programs have lived up to the Center’s claim to excellence. Since the initial five volunteers in 2018, countless international volunteers and students have sat around the breakfast table at Steinweg 56. In both 2021 and 2022 the center’s work supporting the Arabic, English, and German language teaching and learning of these volunteers earned it the recognition of Best Language School by Go Overseas.com. By the summer of 2024 the small breakfast room that once comfortably hosted five volunteers was overflowing with the group of twenty volunteers and employees the center had attracted. 

In the Excellence Center’s new offices this group of volunteers and the center’s offerings have space to grow. As Shantir looks towards the future in the new offices, he looks forward to expanding the Center’s international exchange programs. With a breakfast room over twice as large as before, three spacious classrooms, and walls already filled with hundreds of photos of past volunteers and students, even before any tables or chairs were moved in, the new Center had already proved to be a place where the community can flourish in the coming years.

Volunteers and teachers in the previous weeks came together to print and paste photos on all the walls. One former volunteer, Emily, even came from Berlin to paint a magnificent tree mural. When it was finally time to undertake the arduous task of moving all the furniture to the new center, without hesitating dozens of friends, volunteers, and teachers came together to carry tables, chairs, bookshelves, and plants up and down flights of stairs. After two hours of diligent teamwork, the new Center was ready to receive students. 

If the new Center’s first few days are any sign of what is to come, then the new location promises to strengthen and grow the already tight knit and committed international community that the Excellence Center has fostered over its lifetime. Although the new space is a signal of Center’s prosperity, the moving process demonstrated a driving force behind the Excellence Center’s growth- the dedication and vitality of its community.