Back to Lifestyle Sat 06 Jun
Uniplaces has commissioned a new project that pays for one lucky students’ accommodation fee’s for a whole year.
How?
Let’s just say that kindness pays.
“The first of its kind ‘Living The Dream’ scholarship has been crowd-funded by students with £1 from each booking made on the Uniplaces website going towards the scholarship fund. Built on a social growth model, the scholarship is set to help more students each year as Uniplaces attracts more users with its safe and easy-to-use bookings website.” -Uniplaces
All you have to do is film yourself performing an act of kindness, it can be as small as buying a cup of tea for a stranger or organizing a study group for your classmates; it can be anything. Once you’ve captured your moment, you submit it into uniplaces.com and then voila, you’re in for a shot.
We also caught up with one of the projects co-founders, Ben Grech and asked him a few questions:
AMOR: What has been the most “memorable” or profound act of kindness someone has done for the project?
BEN: There have been some great entries from all over the world. One of our favourites was in Spain where one student gave free tutoring sessions to those struggling with their studies.
It’s been a great exercise in showing the solidarity of students but it’s also just been a great ice breaker, prompting them go a little out of their way to spread some love and make new friends.
AMOR: What plans do you have moving forward with the project?
BEN: We launched the ‘Living The Dream’ scholarship this year but this is just the beginning.
We’re currently looking at ways to make the Scholarship bigger and better, and we’ve recently partnered with Erasmus in order to offer mobile students more support through additional development opportunities as they are faced with rising living costs.
Uniplaces is all about student mobility and smoothing the transition to university in any way we can. We’ve built the scholarship on a social growth model, so as we grow as a company, the scholarship will grow too, becoming available to many more students around the world. Watch this space!
We also strongly feel that affordable, safe accommodation is key if we are to reach the EU goal of having at least 20% of its students train or study abroad by 2020.
AMOR: What other projects are you intrigued by?
BEN: While it’s not a specific project, we’re really excited by the improvements in visibility for universities worldwide. Excellent universities in Asia, the Middle East and Africa are getting global recognition in many University rankings tables, which is opening up options to countless students and increasing student mobility around the world. It’s not just Europe and America that students now want to travel to study.
AMOR: Any advice that you’d like to give to new students?
BEN: University is well about discovery. It’s a time when you’ll find out new things about yourself so don’t be afraid to try something new. Make every moment count and be sure to look at all your options when deciding on the right university for you.
What would your act of kindness be Amorelle’s?
