Alumnus Jan-Paul Vegt graduated from RSM’s MSc in Finance & Investments in 2009. He partnered up with Yonggao Liu, who completed ESE’s Master Marketing, which is part of the Master in Economics and Business, the same year. They started up G&D Europe B.V., exporting products to China, such as EkoBaby milkpowder.
EkoBaby Scholarship
Vegt and Liu consider the education at Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR) the base of their organisation’s success. The alumni decided to pay this forward by creating a scholarship that would give Chinese students the opportunity to study at EUR for a solid foundation towards a successful career. “We want to give something back to the university because this is the place where our journey has started,” said Vegt. With RSM, Vegt and Liu have launched the EkoBaby Scholarship, providing a Chinese bachelor student € 3,000 a year to study at the university.
Focusing on studies
Many Chinese students struggle to fund living expenses and tuition fees, which can force them to return to China before completing their academic programme. The first EkoBaby scholarship has been awarded to Yinqiao Li, who will now be able to continue his study International Bachelor Economics and Business Economics at ESE.
“This scholarship means a lot to me,” said Li, adding that it releases the burden of his family to a great extent. “I can now focus more on my studies. After graduation I would like to do an internship here in the Netherlands, preferably in the financial sector or in the financial department of a firm.”
Successful entrepreneurs
“EUR offers high-class academic programmes for Dutch and international students,” said Vegt. “EUR also encourages students to think open minded, which can lead to successful entrepreneurs. We hope that students are inspired by our scholarship and that they realise that when you work hard anything can be achieved.”
With their future business success, Vegt and Liu hope to create more scholarships. For more information about developing scholarships, please contact Nicole Eshuis at rsmfund@rsm.nl.
