(December 19, 2022)
New Delhi, Dec 19, 2022: Deutsche Bank and Smile Foundation have collaborated to provide engineering scholarships to 200 meritorious women/girls from low-income families across the country. The selected students will receive funding for a four-year engineering course at select colleges in Bengaluru, Jaipur, Mumbai, and Pune.
The bank, along with its NGO partner, handed over scholarship letters and laptops at events across the bank’s offices in Bengaluru, Mumbai, Pune and Jaipur. Apart from the girls and senior management of the bank, their parents and principals were also present at the event.
The scholarship programme has been structured to provide students the required holistic support, right from inception until the completion of their course. By working in tandem with Smile Foundation, the bank will conduct half-yearly training programmes to continually upskill the girls. Post the completion of their course, students will also be given industry experience, support, and guidance for job placements.
Almost 1,100 applications were received from aspirants studying in over 50 colleges, across the four centres. Notably, many of these women would be the first in their families and communities to achieve an advanced formal education, the foundation reports. Almost all of them aspire to be role models for current and future generations.
The process of conducting orientation sessions and selecting the recipients for the scholarship was undertaken by more than 150 volunteers from the bank and the foundation.