Airbnb is standing behind the Obama Foundation in its initiative to provide funding to rising seniors striving to secure careers in the public service sector.
The Voyager Scholarship is designed to help students pay off their college loans, travel and broaden their horizons and connect them with mentors.
According to Forbes, Brian Chesky, the CEO and the co-founder of the company made a generous donation of $100 million to support the initiative and further link education and travel. The publication classifies this as Chesky’s “biggest philanthropic donation so far.”
The two-year program will provide students with $25,000 of financial aid between their junior and senior years and scholarship winners will also receive $10,000 and “free Airbnb housing” to study and work abroad, in order to “gain exposure to new communities.”
A student will earn $2,000 per year from Airbnb over the next 10 years after graduation to travel wherever they want and “forge new connections throughout their public service careers.”
The first group of Voyager scholars will include 100 students and they each will be “hand-selected by Obama Foundation leaders.”
According to Revolt, each student will have the opportunity to meet the former president during an annual conference where a discussion around public service and leadership will be held.
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“If we want this generation of leaders to be able to do what they need to do, they have to meet each other,” former President Barack Obama shared in a video announcement. “They have to know each other. They have to understand each other’s communities.”
“There are young people across the country who have a passion for public service but can’t pursue it because of their student loan debt,” Chesky added. “We want to help reduce that burden.”
Chesky’s $100 million donations to the Voyager Scholarship will be given to the Obama Foundation over five years. And his contribution sits alongside those of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, Bill Gates and more.
The Obama Foundation was founded in 2014 by Barack and his wife, Michelle Obama, to “inspire, empower and connect people to change their world.”
