With the help of our donors, JWOC awards scholarships that enable gifted youth from low-income families to attend University in Siem Reap.

We are excited to announce that we will be re-opening JWOC’s Scholarship Program in 2021, after pausing recruitment for the first time in 14 years back in 2020.

As we re-start the program, we would like to inform our supporters that we have now increased the giving level for sponsoring a JWOC Scholarship Student to $1,200. 

What has changed?

The Universities in Siem Reap has a greater range of classes and global partnerships that reflect the need for cross-cultural and collaborative learning opportunities in the 21st century, which subsequently has led to a rise in tuition fees. For the past few years, the giving level of $700 has been enough to cover the fees, but JWOC still needed to subsidize the associated admin costs for students enrolled in the program.

Even with these improvements at Universities, our students need JWOC to support them to develop further skills. Many of our students come from rural areas without access to further learning opportunities, unlike their peers at University who might come from better socio-economic backgrounds. 

JWOC students now receive an additional 125 hours of training per year at our purpose-built Learning Center. We focus on developing soft skills and building capacity to overcome the challenges youth may face in reaching their career goals. We also provide a platform for motivated changemakers to tackle social issues to improve their confidence and increase their level of civic engagement.

For these reasons, JWOC has decided to increase the giving levels for Scholarship sponsors starting from 2021, for students who will begin their studies at University in 2022*.

What does an annual donation of $1,200 cover?

Item	Amount
University tuition fees	$700
Textbooks	$50-75
Training at JWOC (English, Computer, Life Skills and Youth Leadership)	$250
Counselling and mentorship	$100 (including referral to external partners)
Maintenance of the Learning Center (including electricity, WiFi and Rent)	$75

Our ‘Scholar+’ Level (previously ‘Above and Beyond’ has now increased to $1,500, which enables us to cover additional costs such as the recruitment process for students, events (annual Scholarship Team Building, Graduation Ceremony), and administration costs.

How long does the student spend at University?

The purpose of JWOC’s scholarship program is to reduce a major financial barrier to accessing education. 

The majority of our students complete their studies within 4 years. However, universities have now introduced an additional Foundation Year for students enrolled in English Degrees (TESOL, TEFL and English Literature) to ensure they have the capacity to teach a foreign language. We understand that supporting a student for the full 5 years would be a major financial commitment for our donors, and that after completing their 4th year of University, 93% of our students are able to support themselves and their families financially. 

As such, to ensure that all students enrolled on 5-year degrees are able to cover the cost of an additional year, JWOC has introduced a Financial Literacy course that will give youth the skills needed to develop a savings plan to cover the costs of this Foundation Year, which they will pay back to JWOC before completing the Scholarship Program.

We thank you for your continued support of JWOC’s programs. If you would like to sponsor a Scholarship Student, please email [email protected] 

* Any sponsors supporting existing students will not be asked for an increase in their donation level. This will only apply to students starting with us in 2021.