GRAB Phils. recently launched the GrabScholar: a three-pronged program facilitated with online human-skills school BagoSphere.
The former’s country head Grace Vera Cruz said GrabScholar covers full-time college scholarships in partnership with PHINMA Education, bursary support for educational requirements, and a career acceleration program for aspiring business-process outsourcing (BPO) professionals with BagoSphere.
“Many of our kababayans still lack access to necessary resources to attain their educational goals…[This] has impacted their growth opportunities…” Vera Cruz said in a statement. “…With our partners from BagoSphere and PHINMA Education, [we are here] to offer inclusive educational opportunities to Filipinos who are eager to change their lives for the better.”
The GrabScholar program, she shared, will be supporting six full-time college students with four-year merit-based scholarships; 300 elementary and high-school pupils with a one-time bursary for school supplies, books, and uniforms; and more than 150 adults with the Ateneo Center for Educational Development-BagoSphere BPO Fellowship Program. The program, according to her, is open to everyone—including Grab’s own driver-partners, merchant-partners and their families.
Further, she said GrabScholar matches its broader “GrabForGood” agenda, which is geared at creating a positive impact on local communities through Grab’s technology and platform. Grab Phils. has also launched other social-impact projects like its basic digital literacy effort with Microsoft for driver-partners, and financial-literacy program with the International Finance Corp. for small businesses.
Vera Cruz disclosed that Grab Phils. and PHINMA Education are currently accepting applications for the GrabScholar college-scholarship grant until February 3, 2023. After a rigorous appraisal process with both Grab and PHINMA Education, six students will be selected and granted a full four-year scholarship at any of the partner PHINMA Education affiliate schools: St. Jude College, Republican College, Rizal College of Laguna, Union College of Laguna, and University of Iloilo. The grant covers tuition plus miscellaneous fees, and also entitles the grantee to allowance and school supplies.
“Throughout the past 18 years, PHINMA Education has catered, by intent and design, to the underserved youth: students whose families live on less than $300 per month who, despite odds, are often…first in their families to go to college,” PHINMA Education Phils. country head Christopher A. Tan revealed. “While we provide the Hawak Kamay scholarship…to around 60 percent of our students, GrabScholar will empower even more underserved youth to lift their families out of poverty.”
Tan went further that this school year, they were fortunate to gain more than 124,000 students’ trust: “While it is the highest [number of] enrollment in our history, our mission does not stop there. This partnership with Grab Phils. and BagoSphere showcases how collaboration among like-minded organizations will allow us to reach more students, and make even more lives better [via] education.”
First-year college students currently enrolled for Academic Year 2022-2023 are qualified to apply. They must have a general percentage average of at least 88 or 1.5 in the first semester to be eligible. For more information on other requirements and qualifications, interested applicants may visit https://www.grab.com/ph/about/grab-for-good-fund/education/