The Diploma of Dreams competition held for local NGOs and informal groups willing to participate in the Bridge Scholarships Program has started. If you want to support apt yet of limited means secondary school leavers from villages and small towns and help them meet their dreams of studying at a university, then apply to the competition.
The organizers invite all interested local NGOs to take part in the program of funding scholarships for the 1st year of university studies. The competition is addressed to organizations that want to join a coalition of partners participating in the Bridge Scholarships Program, and have already been running scholarship schemes for members of their local communities or are ready to launch ones.
By taking part in the program the organization may recommend candidates for scholarships and thus give their charges a unique chance to enter the extended scholarship system that covers the whole country. Under the system young people can receive a scholarship in the amount of PLN 5,000, paid in 10 monthly installments of PLN 500 each, for their first year of studies. They can also receive financial support during their further academic education. The contribution of an organization is from 5% of a total cost of the scholarship in the case of an organization seated in a village or a town of up to 20,000 residents provided the scholarship is supported by the Rural Development Foundation, up to 25% of a total cost of the scholarship in the case of municipal organizations; the remaining cost is covered by the Partners financing the program.
Apart from a scholarship for the first year, under the program scholarship holders can receive financial support over next years of study. Those who do best at their studies can be awarded a scholarship for their second, third and fourth year, a scholarship for studying a foreign language, a fellowship, a subsidy for studies abroad or an internship abroad, without any financial contribution of supporting them local organizations.
In 2020/21 academic year about 1,000 people will receive scholarships and an opportunity to attend workshops and internships, including ca. 600 students who will get a scholarship for their first year at university.
The deadline for submitting applications is May 9, 2020.
For more information on the competition visit www.stypendia-pomostowe.pl
The competition is a joint initiative of Polish-American Freedom Foundation, Rural Development Foundation and Educational Enterprise Foundation.
The Bridge Scholarships Program is one of the largest non-governmental scholarship programs in Poland. To date over 24,000 various scholarships were granted under that program, including almost 17,000 for the 1st year of study. The Strategic Partners of the program are Polish-American Freedom Foundation and the National Bank of Poland, the Main Partners are Rural Development Foundation and the BNP Paribas Foundation, and the Partners – a coalition of almost 90 local NGOs.
The Partners disbursed a total of over PLN 117 million for implementation of eighteen rounds of the program.
The competition and the program are managed by Educational Enterprise Foundation.
