The Kellner Family Foundation supports university students for the fifth year; 52 students this year

“We have received applications for the Universities project from approximately a hundred Czech students, and it is therefore very complicated to select those whom we will sponsor. This year, the foundation’s Board of Trustees approved, upon the selection panel’s recommendation, grants for 11 new students on the basis of their academic results and determination to capitalize on the education they have acquired so far. We also take into account the student’s active work for society as a whole,” said Hana Halfarová, Director of the Universities and Open Gate projects at The Kellner Family Foundation. The fields pursued by the students sponsored by the foundation include a very broad range of interests, for example, nuclear physics and particle physics, molecular and cell biology, interior design, aviation engineering, piano playing, economics, and many others.

In the preceding school year, six Universities project students successfully graduated from schools outside the Czech Republic. “Graduates of foreign universities help the most recently included students start their university studies, frequently far away from home and in very different cultural environments,” adds Hana Halfarová.

The Kellner Family Foundation grants scholarships under the Universities project once a year. The deadline for applications to the next round is May 31, 2014. The foundation’s Board of Trustees decides on grants on the basis of the selection and recommendation of a panel composed of Renáta Kellnerová, Professor Radek Špíšek, and Hana Halfarová. In the second round of the selection process, the members of the panel met with the selected students for a personal interview. Petr Kellner and his wife Renáta, the founders of the foundation, and Jan Leiner are the Trustees.

The criteria assessed by the foundation’s Board of Trustees:

• Academic achievements; results in competitions; proof of language skills

• Prestige of the university at which the applicant wants to study

• Recommendations from teachers

• Essay on future plans

• The student’s community work

• The family’s financial situation

List of universities and other higher education institutions | students from the Czech Republic supported by The Kellner Family Foundation in the 2013/2014 school year

U.S. | Columbia University in the City of New York, The Juilliard School of Music New York, Boston University, Northwestern University

U.K. | University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, Imperial College London, University of St Andrews, The University of Aberdeen, University of York, University College London, University of Glasgow, The University of Edinburgh, University of Exeter, University of Chester, Aberystwyth University,  Bath Spa University, University of Dundee, University of Abertay Dundee, The University of Warwick

Czech Republic | Vysoká škola finanční a správní [The University of Finance and Administration], 3. lékařská fakulta Univerzity Karlovy [Charles University’s Third Faculty of Medicine], Empire State College,  Univerzita Jana Amose Komenského [J. A. Comenius University], Unicorn College, Vysoká škola hotelová [The Institute of Hospitality Management]

France | Reims Management School

Italy | Libera Accademia di Belle Arti

Germany | Hochschule für Musik Nürnberg, Technische Universität Dresden

Netherlands | The Hague University

Spain | Universidad de Granada