Michelle Chávez has been working since February 2020 as a non-formal youth civic educator at the educational institute Alte Schule Anspach (basa e.V.). Basa e.V. is an association in Hesse, Germany, guided by emancipatory values, democracy and self-determination. Since 1984, basa e.V. has been active in the field of civic education, youth occupational assistance and youth counseling. With its critical work in civic education, the organization aims to support young people, so as to enable them to better organize themselves and to strengthen their skills. As part of the civic education team, Michelle Chávez together with her colleagues discuss current and challenging socio-political concerns through workshops and seminars for young people and trainers. Her work focuses on anti-discrimination approaches and gender issues from an intersectional perspective. She is also is in charge of a project on the empowerment of girls, which addresses stereotypes, clichés and gender identity issues. In her work, she uses methods that enables deep reflection of one’s surroundings, preconceptions and possible courses of action. 

Michelle Chávez has a multidisciplinary background and has been interested in topics such as human rights, democracy and civic education for many years now. She studied law with a focus on human rights in her home country Nicaragua, where she worked for non-governmental organizations promoting the human rights of vulnerable populations. As a former scholar of the DAAD Democratic Governance & Public Policy program, she completed a master’s degree in political science at the University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE) in 2017. After graduation, she participated in a training program for civic educators and since then she has been active in the field of civic education.

She is convinced that civic education is a useful tool in advocating and protecting fundamental democratic values such as equality, participation and self-determination. She is interested in exchanging ideas and experiences on pedagogical methods of non-formal education that can contribute to and enhance a critical view of current societal challenges, while simultaneously fostering diverse and inclusive environments.