Turning one euro into four

For more than a decade, the University of Jena has been applying for Germany’s ‘Deutschlandstipendium’, a scholarship fund that provides financial and non-financial material support to high-achieving and committed students from all over the world. To date, the University has managed to secure nearly one million euros for talented students. What makes this fund so unique is that every euro raised is doubled by the Federal Government as soon as the scholarship amounts to 1,800 euros. Now, two committed companies have offered to turn one euro into four if the University manages to secure 5,400 euros in a ‘Matching Challenge’. To this end, the University has launched a crowdfunding campaign with the aim of raising this sum by 19 May 2023. 

“We hope that every company, every graduate, friends and sponsors, but also the students themselves will support this campaign by donating so that we can reach this goal. Every euro counts. If we manage to raise this sum, we can jointly offer six additional scholarships for motivated and committed students,” says Katja Bär, Head of Communications and Marketing at the University of Jena. She also expressed her gratitude to Dr Georg Greitemann of the commercial law firm POELLATH as well as Inverso GmbH for offering to double the sum as soon as the target is reached. Only then will 5,400 euros turn into 10,800 euros, a sum the Federal Government will quadruple to 21,600 euros.

Investment in the future

“Guiding young people through their education and preparing them for society’s challenges and the labour market are important and worthwhile investments in the future, to which Friedrich Schiller University Jena is committed,” stresses Prof. Dr Walter Rosenthal, the University’s President. The University hopes to see a lot of support. Contributions of any amount can be made by PayPal, and donation receipts will be issued.

Bank details and more information are available in german at: www.uni-jena.de/matching-challenge de.