Proud

“I took part in different Olympiads during my final years of secondary school. One for physics, biology, math, but not for chemistry, haha. Teachers told me about it and I enjoyed being challenged in the field of science.” Sterre was proud when she heard that she was awarded the grant. “I never thought of myself as an excellent student; I had so much difficulties with language subjects in school. I didn’t need the money, but it felt great.”

Only one of Sterre’s fifteen fellow grantees did not obtain his freshman diploma in one year, which is a requirement students need to meet in order to be eligible for the second installment of the grant. That money went back into the Amandus Lundqvist fund and was then redistributed among the first-year students who did not receive the grant but who did manage to complete their first year within the nominal duration. “That was about one hundred and fifty euros, friends told me,” Sterre says, “a nice encouragement to complete everything within one year.”

Fabrice Fontein was awarded the Encouragement grant that same year. “My profile project stood out because it led to a guidance note for the municipality of Eindhoven that set forth the adjustments Brainport needed to make to remain the smartest region in the world. As far as social activities are concerned, the fact that I trained a korfball youth team probably scored well, as did my mentorship of first-year high school students and the fact that I collected for the Dutch Cancer Society.”

'A good cause'

Sterre used the money to furnish her first student room. She still uses the table, closet, pans and tableware when she returns from a day at Helix where she conducts her doctoral research in the Stimuli-responsive Functional Materials & Devices group. Fabrice, who postponed his graduation to this year because he sat on the board of the Chemical Engineering and Chemistry study association Japie for a year, used the money to finance a study trip to Asia that he partly organized himself.