Rewarding smart ideas from students

They are pretty nervous, the finalists who have the opportunity to pitch their idea to a jury consisting of Pascal Breuls, director of the Student Services Centre, Nick Bos, vice-president of UM and Ivanna Vinnicsuk, a member of the educational development staff. That jury can expect a difficult task, because the ideas are vastly different from one another.

Broadcasts

Florian Bohr, who is taking the first crack at it, calls himself a ‘podcast nerd’. He is developing a radio station/podcast platform about student life. Through messages on Facebook, he has gathered 30 people who want to do it with him. The broadcasts will positively influence the image of students and UM, says Bohr.

Listening ears

Julia Bacci Aggio and Meriam Zimmer have come up with a plan to help fellow students who are struggling with psychological problems. These are occurring more and more, according to Julia. The Heart to Heart project offers people a listening ear through peer-to-peer contact. At a later stage, the initiators also want to organise events and introduce a coaching system.

Chess club

Chess trainers Laurids Stockert and Christopher Brooker make a passionate plea for a university chess club. If they win, they will spend the prize money on ten chessboards, a room where they can play and a demonstration board. “Through a chess club, we can put the students of UM on the map”, says Stockert. “In this way, we also reinforce the intellectual image of the university.”

Diversity

Yet another horse of a different colour is the idea of ​​Loclist, an app that highlights university-wide events and with which students can earn points if they do something outside of their own faculty. “It’s good for diversity and for the collective UM identity”, say the promoters, Javier Baez Garcia and Albert Mhangami. For the first phase of Loclist, € 1000 is needed. The total cost of the app will be a multiple of this amount.

Sustainability

The items that Elisa Etrari offers through the Library of Things (LoT) are all collected through crowdfunding or thanks to donations. “There are so many nice people in Maastricht”, says Elisa. With the LoT, she wants to bridge the gap between students and residents of the city. It has to work, thinks the Italian, especially now that the LoT has moved into the Werkhuis. Everyone can come to bring in things or borrow for free. Elisa: “It’s a sustainable solution if you’re looking for something you don’t need that often.”

Connection

After the pitches, the three-person jury deliberates, while the participants blow off steam with a drink and a slice of pie. “We think it’s important to hear what initiatives there are among students”, Pascal Breuls explains the goal behind the Student Idea Competition. “There are plenty of good ideas that are worthy of being executed. UM would like to give them a financial boost through this competition.”

This year, there are three prizes available, and the verdict is in. The third prize, € 100, goes to Maastricht Student Radio, a well-developed idea that, in cooperation with the international student association Kaleido, offers potential according to the jury. Heart to Heart is awarded the second prize and therefore € 200, plus the promise that UM will talk with them about making a space available for the ‘consultations’. The winner of the Student Idea Competition is the Library of Things, which takes home € 400. “It’s a beautiful, up-to-date initiative that’s in line with UM's strategic programme”, says Breuls. “In the future, the LoT may be rolled out in other neighbourhoods, resulting in even more connections between students and other residents. This project can grow into something big.”