Promoting school students in Ostwestfalen-Lippe

Launch of the ‘NRWTalente – Region OWL’ student scholarship programme

Ensuring the best possible educational opportunities for all children and young people in Ostwestfalen-Lippe (OWL): the new ‘NRWTalente – Region OWL’ student scholarship programme is aiming to help motivated school students in disadvantaged living situations to embark on a successful academic and professional career path. This programme, funded by the Ministry of Schools and Education for the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, has now been launched at Paderborn University. It is being run as a collaboration with Bielefeld University, Bielefeld University of Applied Sciences (FH Bielefeld) and OWL University of Applied Sciences and Arts (TH OWL).

The programme is aimed at students who are not receiving the support they need for a successful education from within their own environment. “We want to aid students by providing practical services such as workshops and excursions, regular advice, individual talent promotion and benefits in kind during their school career, work with them to explore their dreams and potential, and develop professional prospects”, explains Jennifer Gläßer, one of the two managers of the scholarship programme at Paderborn University.

Application is now open to school students in the eighth grade or above who are living in a parental home that is at risk of poverty or has fewer financial resources, are achieving impressive school results, and will be attending school for at least another year and a half. They should enjoy learning and be active on a school, extracurricular or family level. Not all of the criteria named above are equally important. School grades and commitment are evaluated on an individual basis within the applicant’s wider context of life. The application deadline is 12 August. Full details of the scholarship programme are available online at: www.nrwtalente-regionowl.de.

Improving equal opportunities
 

“The OWL region has a high proportion of school students in living situations that prevent them from tapping their full potential”, notes Dr. Yvonne Koch, head of the Student Advice Centre at Paderborn University, under which the student scholarship programme falls. The aim of this new service is to provide children and young people in OWL with the best possible educational opportunities, regardless of their home situation or the type of school they attend and the qualification prospects initially associated with it. “This is particularly important for people whose parents are not always able to help them with academic concerns or with professional or study orientations, or for people whose family obligations or home learning environment mean they are not able to devote as much attention to school as they would like”, adds Luana Heidenreich, the second manager of the Paderborn University programme.

Enabling advancement via education
 

Under the umbrella of the Campus OWL higher education network, since 2017 Paderborn and Bielefeld Universities, FH Bielefeld and TH OWL have been helping committed school students from non-academic, socio-economically weak or migrant families by providing career and study orientation via the ‘Talentscouting OWL’ programme. By gaining funding for the new ‘NRWTalente – Region OWL’ student scholarship programme, the higher education network has managed to establish another building block of promoting talent in order to help motivated students along their journey through life and encourage their potential and talent. “We want to encourage young people to plan their futures and achieve their dreams, in line with the motto: You can achieve anything you set your mind to. We therefore provide support over an extended period, up to the end of their school career at the latest, and help with decision-making processes, difficulties and doubts”, Koch explains.