It’s about that time of the year again…time for Nepalese students to apply for UWC scholarships. (Both Nepalese and English versions of the application forms are available.)
We have 14 offers for next academic year (see image below), an incredible number!
However, those designated “full” do not necessarily cover travel and personal expenses. Last year, we had only one such offer and through the generosity of a number of you around the world, we were able to send Iju to Masstricht UWC.
The challenge this time is to send a number of Ijus by providing the necessary financial support!
Since the last cohorts of students left the country to begin their amazing journey, a number of us–lead by super-charged Sujit–have been hard at work making the applications considerably more accessible (such as making a Nepalese version etc.) and introducing other improvements to the process.
Compared to last year, applicants should be from even a wider ranging backgrounds.
Prominent in the pool will be graduates of very good and expensive private schools, children of wealthy families.
Most of those children will be able to advance their academic career no matter what. If not UWC, they’ll go off to India or Thailand or the Philippines or farther afield–to countries like the United Kingdom, Australia and the United States. They’ll go, if not through financing provided by their families, then through scholarships provided by our own government or foreign governments or the institutions themselves etc.
Hardly any of those opportunities are available to graduates of government or community schools because of their low socioeconomic background–they lack not only funds, but also the connections and access to the information about such opportunities. I certainly wouldn’t have been able to go to UWCAD had it not been a full scholarship, including travel and pocket money!
But the benefit to their community, of one of them going to a UWC and possibly getting further education from educational institutions abroad, would be immense. I know that my own academic accomplishments spurred the next generation of youngsters from my community of Tangbetanis to dream big! Many also realized them!
The biggest challenge for us in the Nepal UWC Committee, as far as I can see, will be raising enough funds to support such deserving students. Students whose families can’t even send them to a run-of-the-mill Higher Secondary School in Nepal, forget being able to put together the necessary funds to pay for travel and personal expenses to send them to a UWC. (A scholarship paid for Iju’s education at the Higher Secondary School she was attending, for instance.)
Raising enough funds and sending such students would be, to me, the most important of this whole process.
But of course, it’s one thing raising US$100 or so to pay for the education of children at our project site or raising $500 to partially pay for Prakriti’s nursing school in Kathmandu or raising $2500 to pay for Iju’s UWC education.
It’s going to be quite another raising enough funds to pay for travel and personal expenses of about half-a-dozen UWC scholars!!
A number of us in the committee are exploring options and working towards a solution to this problem.
In the mean time, if you have been involved in UWC selections in your own country and have done fundraising, could you share your ideas with me? Use the contact form below or the comment form farther down!
If you are feeling generous and want to support our work, you can donate to the committee by going to the committee’s online donation page here (for those in Nepal; see below if you are abroad). If you do donate, please me know also by using the form below. Funds raised through this effort of mine, will be used to support students from low socio-economic backgrounds. (UPDATE Dec. 4, 2019: The form was removed as it was no longer relevant/useful.)
NB: The post was updated on November 12 with the most up-to-date information available about the number of scholarship offers. (It changed from 16 to 14 when the offer from Robert Bosch UWC turned out to be 1 and not 3.)
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November 15 Update: Donation Options
I have already had requests from friends abroad for information on how to donate. And since donation through the UWC Nepal page only works for those in Nepal, here what you can do:
- Donate through Paypal by sending funds to my email address: dorje[underscore]dhindul[at]yahoo[dot]com.
- Should you prefer to donate by bank transfers, I can provide you with bank details in the UK (for those of you in Europe) and in the US (for those in North America). The only trouble with these donations is that I won’t be able to provide anything for tax deduction purposes. I am sorry!
Once you donate, PLEASE be sure to write using the form above and tell me that the fund is “UWC Scholarship donation,” one of the subject options! PLEASE also indicate whether you want to remain anonymous in the donor list I’ll be publishing here.
Once we (the National Committee) have the details of the needs of the students and costs of their attendance at the UWC of their choice etc. finalized I’ll allocate the funds as appropriate. That however won’t be for a while.
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January 22, 2015 Update
We had over 120 applicants this time around! As a result of the outreach work conducted both inside and outside Kathmandu valley, we had loads of graduates from government/community schools applying and many from outside the valley.
Last Sunday, at Budhanilkhanta School, we completed our second stage of the selection process where we had invited over 80 applicants. We met and interacted with numerous very well qualified and deserving young students from all sorts of background!
Once the finalists are identified, we’ll hold the third stage and make the offers. I imagine we’ll have scholars whose parents won’t even be able to pay for travel and personal expenses of their children. That’s where the fundraising drive will help!
My hope is that by then we will have also identified some other scholarship opportunities for the benefit of those deserving students who don’t get any UWC offers!
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List of donors:
| S.N. | Date | Donor | Amount/US$ | Amount/NPR (~Rs. 96.50=US$1.00) |
| 1. | Nov. 17, 2014 | Marco Dalbosco, from my years at the United World College of Adriatic. | 150.00 | 14,475.00 |
| 2. | Dec. 14, 2014 | Self (see Movember 2014: Growing Solo for details.) | 5000.00 | |
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March 8 Update
A page devoted exclusively to fundraising for the 2015 UWC Scholars has been created. So, if you wish to donate or came here to check on the progress of the fundraising drive, please click here.
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June 23, 2017 Update
Please do NOT use the above form to send me personal messages or to ask about UWC’s or to seek help with UWC-scholarship application.
Thank you!
