An NGO called Foreign Scholarship, which intends to have locations worldwide due to the excellent work they lead, has its main office in Toronto, Canada. The foreign scholarship facilitation initiative aims to give students access to international scholarships at colleges and institutions across the globe. This proposal amply illustrates the critical need for scholarship programs to be widely available to learners who can immensely benefit from them (Dassin & Navarrete, 2017). They continue by saying that it is available for Canadian students looking to school overseas on a scholarship, Canadian students choosing semester exchange courses overseas on a scholarship, or learners not from Canada looking to take advantage of scholarship opportunities in Canada. Regardless of where the learners desire to study, the NGO wants to fulfill the ambitions of the future-focused students.
Although many scholarships are offered to global students each year at numerous universities in Canada and around the world, they are not always taken advantage of due to various factors, including inadequate relevant data, bureaucratic red tape, and an absence of internet connectivity in some nations. Consequently, these grants continue to go unclaimed by the intended recipients, preventing anyone from taking advantage of this unique chance to benefit from the offered money.
In addition to the fact that students are passing up golden chances to uplift and embolden themselves through exposure to schooling that can emancipate them, it is also negatively influencing society implicitly by preventing people from obtaining gainful employment because they lack the necessary qualifications and experience to fulfill such appropriate roles. According to the description, the program offers a solution connecting those grants with the appropriate students.
Their genuineness extends to a point where they solely charge the institutions a 1% fee for every successful student. With working on minimal resources by operating online and on social media, they use these platforms to randomly pick students globally who are qualified for the programs and give their word on the scholarship being fully sponsored and providing jobs when the institutions are on holiday breaks (de Wit & Altbach, 2020). Having been in operation in their 2022 fiscal year, they have provided over 1,091 scholarships to students. The students were from random online picks in 2021, most of whom came from single-parent households, economically underprivileged households, parents with educational disadvantages, and families with historically marginalized backgrounds.
The initiative is a real opportunity not to be missed since they have more than 19 degree-holding students continuing to work at United Nations internship programs in Eastern Europe, Africa, the United States, and Canada. The NGO benefits significantly from donations and sponsorships from organizations and companies, including the United Nations, Compaq, CIBC, TD, and far more (Mawer, 2017). The chance to set the students up for success through internship and cooperative education opportunities provided by their constant supporters and funders is a great virtue. A few of their scholarship recipients could launch their enterprises after finishing their studies thanks to their financial support, which enabled them to make a monetary donation to the group they support.
The more students they assist, the more praise and assistance they receive from well-wishers. Consequently, there has been a steady rise in contributions, promises, and sponsorship. They urge more students to participate in their success and, as prominent investors in the betterment of humanity, they help young people realize their aspirations without incurring astronomical expenses. Every time a good act is done, another act of kindness is done in return, helping humanity morally and practically.
Table 1: Opportunity Analysis
Essentially, the validity of the idea is substantiated by the fact that there are identifiable barriers preventing the full utilization of scholarship funds by the students as shown in Table 1 above. The first major problem is the lack of adequate information and platform, which the NGO can address by increasing awareness and access to information. This can include the creation of a user-friendly website and conducting marketing strategies to facilitate awareness. The second issue is the language barrier, which the organization can address with the use of professional translation on the platform. The third barrier category is family and friends, which the NGO cannot completely address since it is a personal choice of each individual. However, the non-profit can help people with children and spouses by accommodating their needs at the destination programs. The fourth barrier is closely tied to the first one since decision-making requires having enough information on the benefits and ramifications, which can be assisted by the NGO through consultations. The last concern will require a systematic collaborative effort with local police departments, universities, and government agencies.
References
Dassin, J. R., & Navarrete, D. (2017). International Scholarships and social change: Elements for a new approach. International Scholarships in Higher Education, 305–327.
de Wit, H., & Altbach, P. G. (2020). Internationalization in higher education: Global trends and recommendations for its future. Policy Reviews in Higher Education, 5(1), 28–46.
Mawer, M. (2017). Approaches to analyzing the outcomes of international scholarship programs for Higher Education. Journal of Studies in International Education, 21(3), 230–245.