Business Club VUB and Squire BV joined forces to help students in need. Together they are launching scholarships for excellent students with financial difficulties in the context of the Caroline Pauwels Relief Fund. With this initiative, they hope to encourage other student associations to follow their footsteps. Because the world needs every talent. Gino Aytas, president of Business Club VUB, explains their motivation.
What is the Business Club and what does it stand for?
The Business Club VUB is a student organization that helps students to develop soft and hard skills concerning business. As an organisation, we noticed a huge gap between companies and students. Therefore we build a bridge between students and companies through various events ranging from guest lectures to company visits and a big annual campus recruitment event.
How did the idea of a scholarship arise? Why Squire BV?
During summer, I was brainstorming with vice-president Quinten Hoffmann about our goals with the Business Club VUB in the coming academic year. We quickly decided that, in addition to our normal activities, we wanted to set up an initiative to help VUB students. That's how the idea of a scholarship arose. Due to inflation, studying becomes unaffordable to some students.
Therefore we looked for a passionate partner from the business world who wanted to realise this initiative. Squire is a matchmaking platform whose mission is to help students find student jobs, internships and a first job. Their mission, helping students, fits perfectly with our goal.
What do you wish to achieve with this initiative?
Our goal is to support excellent students with financial difficulties. They often combine their studies with a student job, which is often not feasible. This is where our scholarships can provide help and take away money worries. Any student in financial need, who meets certain criteria regarding study progress, can apply for a scholarship through the Social, Legal & Financial support department. With our support of 1000 euros, five scholarships will be financed.
The late Honorary Rector Caroline Pauwels strove to provide equal educational opportunities to every student. As an organization, we share that mission. This motivated us to support the Caroline Pauwels Relief Fund and establish several scholarships for students. Our goal is to continue this support and increase the amount in the future.
What message do you want to share with the VUB community?
Establishing scholarships for students by students is our message. We want to encourage other VUB student associations to do the same and release funds to help students with financial needs. The possibilities are truly endless. We can only dream, but maybe one day there will be a joint student scholarship funded exclusively by VUB community associations
About Business Club VUB
Founded in 2019 the Business Club VUB had a clear mission from the get-go. Trying to bring students closer to business. To achieve this mission the organization provides students guidance and knowledge by applying theory into practice. We have noticed that a lot of what is taught during the academic curriculum is not applicable on the real world and to close this gap we want to show students what companies are looking for.
The Business Club organizes different events that vary from workshops and lectures to a job fair and company visits. Throughout these activities we try to focus on the importance of learning new skills and gaining general knowledge.
About Squire BV
Squire is a matching tool that links interns to companies. Internships are a win-win situation for both students and companies. Students can gain practical experience in the workplace before graduating. Companies can compete in the war for talent through Squire. Squire is completely free for students looking for an internship.
www.squire.be
About VUB Foundation
The VUB Foundation raises philanthropic funds from companies, organizations, institutions and individuals. It does so within the framework of the TechTransfer service of the Vice-Rectorate of Innovation and Industry Relations. The policy of the VUB Foundation is based on the conviction that every philanthropic gift has a social return. Every contribution supports education, research, innovation or the patrimony of the VUB. The resulting knowledge and insights flow back to society.
VUB. Every donation returns.
https://www.vub.be/en/support-vub