Meet Loyle Campbell and Paulina Rios Maya. They are two final year undergraduates in the bachelorâs in social sciences programme, specialising in political sciences. They are ambitious and highly engaged, but also very entrepreneurial. They are currently in Tokyo, presenting a social venture for their pilot project, âUndergraduate Research Delegation â âCorrectional Integrity." We chat with Loyle, who explains more about this social venture.
âWe want to engage final year undergraduates by bringing together several students in their final bachelor year to focus their research on an overarching theme,â he explains. He and Paulina were inspired by their own study programmeâs interdisciplinarity and felt they could make this work for their bachelor paper. They want to gather different students from different programmes/faculties to take differing disciplinary approaches and research questions to try and contribute towards one central theme.
âThe idea is that the delegation works together (while still producing independent papers) and puts this research into a social venture proposal to find a fundable solution to a social problem. The delegation members would also present their work at different academic conferences to show the value of undergraduate research,â Loyle explains.[Continue reading below picture]
At present, it is just the two of them, as they are trying to prove a point through this pilot project. If all goes well, they hope to incorporate 4-6 students (who are currently in their second-year bachelorâs programme) to take over the concept and operate it next academic year.
For this yearâs pilot, Loyle and Paulina are tackling Black Market Financing as the theme under the supervision of Professor Jonathan Holslag. The theme was chosen because it fits with their specialisation in political science. Theyâve been working with the Vice-Rector of Education and the EUTOPIA representatives to see if their project would fit within the framework of the European universities network. Their pilot project also received a grant from the VUB International Relations* office, via the International Ambassador Programme.
The pilot is going through several stages at this point. Last week Loyle and Paulina presented their proposal at the VUB PeaceJam conference to an audience of +250 students from all over Belgium. Their proposal was applauded and personally endorsed by the Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Rigoberta Menchu Tum, who was excited to see students tackling such an important and relevant issue. These next two weeks, they are attending the Harvard affiliated Resolution Project Social Venture Challenge (SVC) in Tokyo, Japan, where they will present the proposal for a second time. If they do well, they will receive a follow-up grant and fellowship to finance their venture. Following the SVC, they will attend the OECDâs Global Forum on Anti-Corruption and Integrity in Paris, where they will present some of their work/findings. Later in the year, they will also be representing the VUB at the 2020 International Conference for Undergraduate Research (ICUR) at Warwick University.
Loyle and Paulina want to start generating awareness of their project to encourage those current second-year bachelorâs students to get involved and participate in it during the next academic year. They want to ensure students from all faculties apply and participate. All disciplines are welcome.
We are certainly convinced weâll hear more about this project in the coming weeks and months!
*More information on applying for such a grant is available online