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application dead line 6/15 for rising College Juniors
$50,000 ($25,000/yr) financial aid
$10,000 Airbnb travel housing summer
$20,000 ($2,000/year) travel stipend
And more
“An increasingly globalized world needs young leaders who can bridge divides and help solve our biggest challenges together.
The Voyager Scholarship was created by the Obamas and Brian Chesky, Airbnb CEO, to help shape such leaders. Even though they come from different backgrounds, both the President and Brian believe that exposure to new places and experiences generates understanding, empathy, and cooperation which equips the next generation to create meaningful change.
This scholarship gives college students financial aid to alleviate the burden of college debt, meaningful travel experiences to expand their horizons, and a network of mentors and leaders to support them.”
That’s all very noble, but not when they seemingly have money to give away, yet won’t invest any money in decent customer service and tech programming that isn’t full of constant glitches.
It’s like letting your own children go hungry so you can look good by donating your grocery money to the food bank, along with your photo in the newspaper for being such a community-minded person.
When I read “summer housing” I thought immediately it’s really a host providing summer housing. Airbnb should really go out of their way to give credit to all the hosts that provide free housing. At least Airbnb should pay for the cleaners and any damages.
Thank you for sharing…it is indeed a wonderful opportunity for someone’s kid. I think those that rain on this parade should keep off this post. I have shared the info to the groups of college parents I belong to.
You mean the people that are pointing out the virtue signaling that is rife in this PR stunt? Yes, scholarships are great. BUT ABB’s business internally is suffering - money should go towards making the platform better and take care of hosts. Giving away host housing without compensation is a way for ABB to get great press but not acknowledge the hosts whose backs his empire is built upon.
Economics. Money doesn’t lie, statistics do (from my econ PhD dad).
It is a punch in the gut when people take what could be a life changing opportunity and pick it to death. It’s clear some of the naysayers didn’t read or perhaps understand the article.
Sure people have opinions but when they consistently belittle sharing good information eventually no one will share anything.
$25,000 a year scholarship isn’t a drop in the financial bucket for Airbnb. With millions of hosts, it isn’t even $0.02 per host.
Airbnb isn’t fully funding this. It is part of the Obama Foundation non-profit activity. The partnership is with Chesky, not Airbnb.
I don’t know who will be involved as mentors but look at who has been involved in the past, Oprah Winfrey, Stedman, amazing artists, & look at the influential contacts Former President Obama has.
If you know any high school or college students share this, please.
A high school student can start positioning themselves to apply with the type of volunteer work they do. This same volunteer work will certainly provide good life knowledge & position them for future (other) scholarship applications or job application resumes.
I wish they offered 62 year old retired nurses this kind of financial & mentoring support. I would be first in line.
I’m not raining on anyone’s parade. It’s a wonderful opportunity for students but hosts are the ones providing the free housing he mentioned yet he’s not giving these hosts any credit.
It’s like me taking credit for a student getting into Princeton, Harvard or Yale just because he/she was my student in high school. It wasn’t me that got him/her into an ivy league school, it was the student’s hard work; staying up all night studying for tests, taking honors and AP courses, etc.
Same thing here, it’s the hosts giving free housing not the CEO, yet he’s taking all the credit. It won’t kill him to give credit to all the hosts that open their homes free of charge and pay out of pocket for cleaners and damages.
This is not what the article said. You are assuming hosts are giving free housing. Students are given a travel housing stipend. Stipends are money to pay expenses.
The article says “students will receive a $10,000 stipend and free Airbnb housing.” Key words FREE housing. You’re assuming that the stipend would be used for housing but the stipend most likely would be for meals and transportation. A stipend is similar to per diem which is used for meals and public transportation like train fare and taxis. If the stipend was being used for an Airbnb stay, it would not be free. The article clearly indicates free Airbnb.
I don’t usually post here much, but because of the major changes to Air, it’s made a lot of us furious with good reason. We are being held hostage to a new system that obviously didn’t do its homework to make it work for hosts and guests before they put it out there. How is that a smart business move?
Any other time I’d probably be happy to read what you’ve posted but it’s a little hard to get excited when Air is being run by someone that doesn’t give one rip for hosts or guests.
