Santander Focuses on Education

NEWS

Santander Group is the only European bank named on the Fortune Magazine’s 2018 Change the World List. Thanks to its commitment to higher education through Santander Universidades, the bank has been recognized as the world’s largest corporate contributor to education (Varkey Report / UNESCO / Fortune 500). Support for education has become one of its hallmarks and is proven in:

1,200 partnership agreements concluded with universities and institutions in more than 20 countries
EUR 1.7 billion allocated to various university projects since 2002
more than 73,000 scholarships awarded to students in 2018

All with the goal of helping customers to succeed on a daily basis and supporting local communities.

Santander Universidades is the backbone of the social responsibility policy of Santander Bank Polska. Promoting education, sustainable economy and counteracting gender inequality are firmly anchored in the bank’s strategy and constitute an important and integral part of implementing the #Responsible Banking agenda. At present, 58 universities from the largest academic centers in Poland are members of the program.

The cooperating universities operate scholarship programs and individual research programs in entrepreneurship and research development, in particular including new technologies, student and faculty staff mobility and the development of global networking and knowledge sharing.

Students and faculty staff have an opportunity to actively participate in projects operated on a global scale.

The global Santander Scholarships are a perfect example of such activities. This summer, 11 people from Poland flew to the USA to participate in one of the following activity-packed summer programs:

Santander-Yale International Experience Summer Program

This 5-week scholarship at Yale University, offered students the opportunity to choose from among 100 different thematic workshops. A participating student from Poland, decided to take a course in biology.

“After the first week at Yale, I am greatly impressed with the school and the level of teaching. I am very excited to be able to study with such a diverse group of students. Together with the rest of the Santander Scholarship recipients, we have created a very close group of friends, we often spend time together in the canteen and in the library and we participate in various events and trips organized by the university. My first biology class was very interesting, the material we will cover during these 5 weeks is very extensive, but classes are conducted in a very professional and approachable manner.”

Bartosz Jankowski, a student of the Medical University in Gdańsk, on his first week at Yale

Georgetown Summer Workshop – Social Innovation and Financial Inclusion in the Digital Age

This was a two-week, multidisciplinary workshop on key trends impacting social and economic integration. Students worked on innovative solutions that we hope will help to solve the problems of our times.

TrepCamp Entrepreneurial Simulator 2019

This is an international developmental program addressed to aspiring startupers, taking place in one of the top innovation environments in the world, including Silicon Valley, New York, London, Boston, Mexico City and San Diego. This program allows students to gain priceless experience that entrepreneurs often have to acquire for years. During this three-week training, participants work in multidisciplinary teams whose goal is to develop an innovative, comprehensive solution to one of the global challenges. Conceptual work is supported by a group of international mentors and entrepreneurs. The program also includes seminars with the participation of experts, visits to incubators, accelerators and innovation centers of leading global companies, as well as presentations delivered to a panel of international investors.

The time I spent in New York gave me the confidence I lacked. I realized that passion and commitment to whatever you do is very important in becoming an entrepreneur, because there will always be ups and downs. This trip taught me that the world was full of amazing opportunities. And most importantly, that it is worth getting to know people from other countries because it really enriches and broadens your horizons.

Magdalena Żylicz, a student at the Warsaw School of Economics

Santander W50: Preparing Our Women Board Members of Tomorrow the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA)

Thank you Santander Bank Polska and UCLA Anderson for a fascinating journey into the world of value-driven leadership, finances and other interesting subjects. Classes are over but our road has just begun. See you in Poland!”

Patrycja Sznajder on LinkedIn

These programs met with a huge interest; tens of thousands of applications from all over the world were received. Because of the very high level presented by the students from Poland, as many as 11 people were invited to participate in the scholarship programs. Among the winners were students from the Warsaw School of Economics, the Poznań University of Technology, the Medical University of Gdańsk, Leon Kozminski School of Business, and the Economic University in Poznań and three experienced managers.

The main objective of Santander Universidades is to support young people around the world and create space for them for even better development of knowledge, skills and professional competences. Therefore, we are all the more pleased that Polish students had the opportunity to study and meet interesting people from all over the world on the most famous American campuses and in the world’s top innovation ecosystems, such as Silicon Valley.

Wojciech Leśniewski Director of Santander Outlet Development Office

We are not slowing down. Currently, we are recruiting (until 30 September) to Santander IE – Digital DNA, an extremely innovative scholarship project, where 100 students from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, China, Spain, Colombia, Mexico, Germany, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, the United States, Uruguay and the United Kingdom will be able to participate in specialist trainings on digital transformation. The classes, which are held on-line, aim to broaden the students’ knowledge of technology and innovation and increase their chances of employment in the future.

In addition, 30 scholarship holders will take part in a recruitment process for internship at the international headquarters of Santander Bank in Spain.

In the coming months, another 80 Santander scholarships will be available for students of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, i.e. fields of study that are part of the STEM group (Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths).

Santander wants to help students develop their professional competences and help them take advantage of the opportunities offered by digital transformation.

Javier López, Social Impact Director at Santander Universidades

For more information and current news on the projects go to: santanderuniversidades.pl