Diversity: Portrait of HR manager Ayse Semiz-Ewald – Business

Ayse Semiz-Ewald knows what it's like to persevere. During her school days, a teacher once said to her: “You don't need to try hard, you won't get your A-levels anyway.” It wasn't the only stupid comment Semiz-Ewald had to listen to. Not somewhere in the country, but in Unna near Dortmund. In the heart of the Ruhr area, where a migrant background is no longer a rarity. But at the grammar school, apart from Semiz-Ewald and her sister, there were hardly any other students with a Turkish immigration history. “And I always felt that,” says the 39-year-old.