August 2018, Oxford, UK.
I was at the summer school Oxford for Romania, participating as mentor for the students’ entrepreneurship project. Every Year, Oxford for Romania (OFR) offers a program for 25 high school students from Romania, very intelligent and curious to discover the world. Many of them come from vulnerable backgrounds, have never travelled abroad, nor dare to hope this may happen soon.
The OFR team consists of volunteers, scientists, teachers and professionals from various fields. Everyone puts their resources and motivation together to create a high-quality program similar to those in top universities to drive students out of their world and guide them to explore according to their curiosities in almost any field.
One evening, as we were coming back from the dinner, we had in the city centre, I was talking with the students about the universities they were going to choose. Some were thinking of studying abroad, but others did not dare to hope they could get that far. Everyone would have had the right profile for top universities, if we were strictly judging on their school performance and results.
One of the students sadly told me that he didn’t dare to dream of studying at Oxford or another prestigious university. I asked him why. He answered he was coming from a single-parent family and that the only source of income was uncertain, because his mother had a fixed-term employment contract. When I asked him whether he would meet the admission criteria, he answered modestly that he had straight A and would easily meet the requirements. I wanted to know what the costs would be. The school fees would be zero because he would be admitted at the university with a scholarship. Still, he would need more money for home and transportation. For food, he told me, it wouldn’t be a problem, he could eat zacusca** and bread all year long if he got to study there. I hardly hold my tears. Then a few minutes of quiet walking followed. I then asked him about accommodation and transportation costs monthly. In London or Oxford, about 600 pounds, he answered. Then, without thinking, I told him I couldn’t cover these monthly costs by myself, but I’ll talk to a few friends and we’ll do that together. When I asked him if he would agree, his eyes started to shine. Then I suggested that he should be concerned about passing all the tests and I will take the needed steps to find the donor team.
June 2019, Bucharest, Romania
I had decided to end my experience as an employee at Amazon in London and return to Romania. Beside the desire to return to my entrepreneurial projects, I felt it was time to do something that had an impact on education and I wanted to do it in my country. I had some ideas, but seeing the need for support for students who gave up on higher education for financial reasons, I decided to start a crowdfunding platform.
I felt a weight on my shoulders, though, as I started again something from scratch. On top of that, I was not convinced that in Romania we have a culture of donating strong enough, as crowdfunding means more people donating for the same cause. But beside these constraints, there was the joy of making the first crowdfunding platform for Romanian students and of creating a chance for them to reach their potential. In addition, we were planning to offer mentoring and guidance in the process, exactly what I had missed at their age to dare to apply to a university abroad.
This is how we started the first campaigns to test the idea on adopamstudenti.ro. However, among the four young people who needed money to study at top universities in Europe, the one from which everything started was not there. When we were ready to launch his campaign, he announced he was giving up. He couldn’t leave his mother alone in Romania. I was so sad when I heard it that I cried all night. “I wondered a dozen times if it was my right to persuade him to change his mind. He had been accepted to the best university in London in his field and I had already had donors eager to contribute to monthly costs. But was I able to insist on him on making a decision that would fundamentally change his life, even if it seemed to be for his best?” I still ask myself this question when I talk to students who want to give up before doing anything for their dream.
Beside the challenges of managing students’ stories, there are also those related to the fundraising process. The mission adoptamstudenti.ro is related to education in two ways: for students who are looking for resources to go to university and to increase people’s desire to contribute to charitable projects, which is quite little. In order to increase the willingness in this area, I have spoken to many entrepreneurs, business people, accountants, most of them with no experience in donating. They said they had no time to document the cause, to understand the law or to check that the money was going to where they were told to. I was surprised to find out that some had not sponsored anyone in 20 years of entrepreneurship, although the Romanian law supports sponsorship.
However, we have managed to collect almost all the money for the campaigns in a few weeks. The people donated because they resonate with the students’ stories, but also because they trusted me, that I got involved in meaningful projects and that I donate a lot of money as an entrepreneur.
Slowly, slowly, the idea I had started from was confirmed, a sort of collective educational adoption. Just like in a big family, together we are contributing to quality education, together we are supporting a student to believe that it can be possible. The idea that we keep repeating to students during campaigns preparation is about abundance: When you are brave enough to follow your dream, the necessary resources come. Of course I often wonder what we would do if these young people start on the road and we fail to collect all the money they need. But, in order to convey the plentiful idea to them, I need myself to be convinced of it and to turn can’t be done into how it can be done. It is a challenge that we did not foresee at the beginning of the journey.
March 2021, Bucharest, Romania
After two years of campaigns that have supported students to go to top universities in Europe, we decided to do something different. The students who want to study at universities in Romania and cannot do it for financial reasons will be supported this year, too. This adds the challenge of managing even more applications and campaigns and finding more donors. With confidence in the idea of abundance, we are doing everything we can to bring together talented young people and donors in search of stories to contribute to. Stories in which however little really means a lot, and in which we are all creators of abundance.
Since I started adoptamstudenti.ro the question that remained with me is about how many people passionate about many fields would eat zacusca to take steps toward their dream.
*adoptamstudenti.ro means Adopt a student
**traditional Romanian vegetable spread