The A.A. van Beek Fund celebrates its 100th anniversary with the publication of the anniversary book 'Study without borders'. For 100 years, the A.A. van Beek Fund has given thousands of Rotterdam students the opportunity to gain international experience. The fund was set up by the Rotterdam Van Beek family who wanted to encourage students at the then Nederlandse Handels-Hoogeschool - the forerunner of Erasmus University Rotterdam - to gain trade experience abroad.
What started as an initiative to support the ideals of the NHH and promote international trade spirit has evolved over the years into supporting students who need an extra push to gain international experience during their studies. In doing so, the fund has chosen to support those students for whom it is not natural to go abroad. Maurits van Beek, scion of the founder, currently sits on the fund's board of directors:
'We have shifted our focus to first-generation students for whom a contribution is indispensable to do an internship abroad. These are young people who are the first in their family to go to university and where the financial resources are not sufficient to take that extra step, which is indeed important for their career. For me, it is a new fulfilment of our ambition: that foreign experience helps you move on and it is good for Rotterdam that there are young talents entering the job market who have enriched themselves with an experience abroad."
The A.A. van Beek Fund has awarded thousands of scholarships since its inception, and behind all these applications and awards are inspiring and personal stories. The anniversary book contains a selection of special experiences and anecdotes, complemented by background information on the history, impact and connection of the A.A. van Beek Fund with Erasmus University Rotterdam.
''The experience I gained partly thanks to the Van Beek Fund, I will carry with me for the rest of my life''
Deniz Güngör
Paediatric neurologist (Albert Schweitzer Hospital)
For example, medical student Deniz Güngör, now a paediatric neurologist at Albert Schweitzer Hospital, conducted research on vitamin D deficiency among children in Uzbekistan in 2004. "Besides a great research result, my three months in Uzbekistan were a bizarre experience. So soon after independence from the Soviet Union, public life was still arranged so differently from the Netherlands: lots of poverty and hardly any facilities (...) My biggest lesson is perhaps still patience. Sometimes we almost lost hope that things would work out. The experience I gained partly thanks to the Van Beek Fund, I will carry with me for the rest of my life.''
Boundless ambition
Former AEGON chief executive Kees Storm did an internship in the United States in the 1960s: "That young people, like me at the time, who really don't have any money in their pockets to pay for such an experience, have the chance to give their future a direction. For me, there is a ruler straight line from the fund to my career. I wish that to every ambitious student who doesn't have the opportunities to pull it off on their own. They need a push to make all that boundless ambition come true and that is exactly what the Van Beek Fund does. In my time and still today. How beautiful is that!"
The first copy of the book will be handed over to Annelien Bredenoord on 3 July, during a festive gathering at Erasmus University.
Gift for the future
At the same meeting, it will also be announced that the A.A. van Beek Fund has decided to celebrate its 100th anniversary in a big way by donating EUR 100,000 to UNIC, the partnership between post-industrial universities of which Erasmus University is part. The joint objective of the EUR and the A.A. van Beek Fund, in addition to the regular applications to the fund, is to give an additional 100 students the opportunity to go abroad for undergraduate studies as part of UNIC.
The A.A. van Beek Fund and Erasmus University Rotterdam enthusiastically look forward to the coming years, in which they will jointly strive to enhance international experiences and promote borderless study for students.
The A.A. van Beek Fund is a named fund of the Erasmus Trustfonds.
- More information
For more information, please contact: Erasmus Trustfonds Rosanne Kars r.kars@trustfonds.nl or call 06 15 25 07 02