Participation: European Mensa Juniors Camp (EMJC) 2026 in Talmont-Saint-Hilaire

Dies ist eine Teilveranstaltung zur Veranstaltung European Mensa Juniors Camp (EMJC) 2026 in Talmont-Saint-Hilaire, France. Sie kann auf der Seite der Rahmenveranstaltung mit gebucht werden.

Beschreibung

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 23rd of October 2026 till the 01st of November 2026. We will stay at the youth hostel "Centre du Porteau" in Talmont-Saint-Hilaire, France. 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 France. 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 500 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 23rd of October 2026 to breakfast on the 01st of November 2026. As an additional support by the MinD-Stiftung for highly gifted children and teenagers, the participation fee is reduced to 470 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): 30th of July 2026 12:00 GMT+2
End of pre-booking: 15th of August 2026 23:59 GMT+2
Confirmation of participation: 16th of August 2026
Direct booking of remaining spots: 17th of August 00:01 till 20th of September 2026 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 Talmont-Saint-Hilaire!
Paul for the EMJC team

The registration takes place in three steps.

Online-Reservation

Mensa Germany website

Declaration of consent

cancellation conditions

Booking confirmation

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).
For the duration of the camp, the guardian gives their consent to medical treatment or medical intervention for the participant, provided that this is deemed necessary from a medical point of view, the measure is in the participant’s best interests, and the guardian could not be contacted in good time. The guardian will be informed as soon as possible and will receive all the necessary information.
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, Hermann-Ehlers-Str. 13, 82110 Germering, 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 is not decisive 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 certainly get a place. If you have any other special needs regarding the allocation of places, please contact emjc@mensa.de before 15.08.2026.

Anyone who registers after the 16.08.2026 will be booked directly, provided there are still places available.

Clicking on "Send booking requests" will take you to an online form in which you must enter the usual information such as emergency numbers and project requests. 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 in making 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! So bring your creativity, your clipboard (if you´re feeling fancy)... and let´s roll! *Spoiler alert: it will most likely be a music video.
Dance by Milan and Jonas (Thede)	In this project, we are going to dance a whole lot. Milan and I (Jonas (Thede)) started dancing ourselves at Mensa dance evenings and were absolutely thrilled. However, dance evenings are very short - often just a single evening. There is barely enough time for the basic steps. That’s why there is a whole project for it at this camp now. We will mainly be dancing Ballroom and Latin, but also a bit of West Coast Swing and maybe the occasional line dance here and there. No matter how much experience you have, feel free to sign up. We will start with the basic step for every dance, then show further moves for anyone is interested in more. You don’t need a partner; we will be switching around the whole time anyway. If you are signing up together with friends, please keep in mind that when projects are assigned, it is possible you might not get into the same project together. So, either way, please bring a willingness to dance with people you will only be getting to know during the project.
Communication and LEGO robots by Bo	Come and learn together - Using LEGO robot, Python (Pybricks), apps, and other electronics, we will explore independent collaborative systems together. This camp focuses on how robots ´talk´ to each other, exploring communication protocols and the power of collaborative problem-solving. While we´ll be building and programming with LEGO, we´ll also experiment with tools like custom apps and maybe ESP32 microcontrollers. Collaboration and communication are our priorities, but there will of course also be a bit of building, engineering, and coding. Bring a laptop if you can!
Open Source Intelligence by Benjamin	Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) is a technique to gain and process information from all kinds of publicly available sources and to use this information for different kinds of decision-making. It was invented for the military, but is now also used by criminal investigators to find out things about crimes and suspects, by journalists for investigative research, by cybersecurity professionals to simulate hacker attacks, and much more. In this project, at first, we will learn some theory about the purposes of OSINT investigations and the tools that we can use for them. Afterwards, you will be ready to solve some (maybe real-world?) investigation challenges. And last but not least, you might get the opportunity to develop some challenges that the other project team members can solve. If you can, bring a laptop or tablet, because much of the research will be done using the internet. However, if you do not have a laptop or tablet, we will find a solution too.
AI: Between Hype, Hope, and Hazard by Michael	Artificial intelligence will shape your life more than almost any other technology. So let´s find out how it works, how it can empower you, and where its current limits are. In this project, we go beyond ChatGPT: you´ll train your own machine learning model, compete in prompt battles, explore different types and use cases of AI, and practice detecting deepfakes. We´ll look under the hood of large language models and image generators to understand why they can be impressively brilliant and impressively stupid within the very same response. And we´ll take on the big questions: Can a machine be creative? Or conscious? Can we control a system that might become smarter than every human? We´ll take a critical and balanced view of AI with hands-on experiments, technical basics, and philosophical debates. No prior knowledge needed.
Saving Europe´s Heritage: Become a Restoration Detective! by Arandjel	What would you do if a 700-year-old castle was about to collapse? Or if an ancient bridge had survived wars, earthquakes, and centuries of history? In this project, you´ll become a restoration detective and discover how engineers, historians, and architects work together to save Europe´s most incredible landmarks. Through hands-on challenges, team missions, engineering experiments, quizzes, and real case studies from across Europe, including hidden treasures from my own country Montenegro, you´ll investigate damaged monuments, solve restoration puzzles, and design your own plans to preserve history. No previous knowledge is needed—just curiosity, creativity, and a passion for solving mysteries.
Journalism in times of fake news by Sonja	How do journalists carry out research properly, find reliable sources and spot fake news? How do they ensure getting a balanced view? In this workshop, you´ll learn about tools beyond google or ChatGPT to do research, to evaluate digital media content and to verify information. You´ll also learn how journalists work in teams - by creating your own one. Together, you´ll produce content according to journalistic criteria. We´ll discuss the exact format and topic when we meet. I´ll bring suggestions with me. You love critical thinking and creating creative media content - join this workshop! Please bring a laptop if you can, at least a smartphone is needed.