Program description
Bridge Scholarships Program
Idea
Bridge Scholarship Program was initiated in 2002 by the Polish-American
Freedom Foundation in response to a serious social problem concerning
huge disproportion in higher education accessibility for young people
from the rural areas and cities.
Young people from rural areas, notably state-owned farms, comprise a
scant percent of university students. A lot of young people do not even
take into consideration going to university because of the poor
financial situation of a household. Higher education is not available
for them. It is impossible for them to cross higher education
threshold.
The goal of the Bridge Scholarship Program is to support young people
in overcoming this exceptionally troublesome barrier and enable them to
pursue higher education by awarding grants to first-year students
enrolled in full-time master's courses. At the same time we assume that
the prospect of receiving a grant upon enrollment in a college or
university will provide an incentive for high school leavers meeting
the criteria of our Program.
The program is sponsored by the following renowned Benefactors:
- Polish-American Freedom Foundation (PAFF)
- The National Bank of Poland (NBP),
- The Agricultural Property Agency (APA),
- PZU Foundation
- BRE Bank Foundation
- TP Group Foundation
- Jan Kanty Steczkowski Foundation,
- Post Bank
- National Economy Bank (NEB),
- Academy for Training and Competence
- Rural Development Foundation
-
The coalition of local non-governmental organizations working in close
cooperation with the Stefan Batory Foundation and the Academy for the
Development of Philanthropy in Poland.
In cooperation with: The Agricultural Property Agency (APA).
The program is administrated by the Educational Enterprise Foundation (EEF) in Lodz, which manages the Program on the behalf of the Benefactors and co-operating organizations.
Addressees:
The
Bridge Scholarship Program is targeted at first-year students enrolled
in full-time master's studies, coming from rural areas or small towns
(up to 20 thousand citizens), especially children of former state-owned
farm workers meeting the eligibility criteria specified in the
Regulations.
Grants will be awarded to high-school leavers from
families with very low income, notably young people previously covered
by the assistance program of the Agricultural Property Agency (APA), as
well as schoolchildren who used to receive grants awarded by
non-governmental organizations who in addition score high grades and
young people participating in educational programs of Polis-American
Freedom Foundation such as Classy School, English Teaching and The
Learning School. Since 2008 participants of the 3rd stage of subject
olympiads in secondary schools can take part in the Program.
Basic Principles of the Program:
The program draws on the experience of the Educational Enterprise
Foundation which specializes in student grant programs implementation,
the experience of the Agricultural Property Agency and non-governmental
organizations that administer high-school scholarship programs.
Cooperation between the Educational Enterprise Foundation and the
benefactors is based on bilateral agreements. The cooperation provides
for the implementation of the scholarship program, which is common for
both parties. The Regulations on awarding and transferring scholarships
to students define the rules and criteria of eligibility, selection
principles and procedure as well as grants amount.
Decisions on grants awarding are made by independent Grant Committees appointed by EEF Management Board.
The Educational Enterprise Foundation cooperates with
scholarship-holders, monitoring their academic progress and suggesting
possible ways of receiving scholarship assistance in the course of
studies as well as applying for student loans and loan guarantees.
Every year a booklet on this subject is published and sent to all grant holders in consecutive editions of the Program.
Every
institution which notices the necessity of the educational advancement
of young people from rural areas and small towns and wishes to join our
initiatives is welcomed to the program.
The Program is under the auspices of ‘Rzeczpospolita' daily paper.
