SWB Scholarships Without Borders at Franklin University Switzerland was founded in 2015 by co-directors Professor Johanna Fassl and Professor Caroline Wiedmer. It is designed to provide university-level education opportunities for students with refugee status in Switzerland. SWB students receive a scholarship to embark on studies leading to a Bachelor’s at FUS (BA or BSc). SWB not only provides an educational home to students coming to us from afar, it also includes a university-wide, co-curricular program. Our SWB team is made up of student volunteers, interns, mentors and Life-Long-Learning-Scholars (LLLS), all working closely together to support SWB students and the program as a whole.
SWB is a member of the Swiss section of SAR, Scholars at Risk, headquartered in New York. It also is connected to a Swiss and international network of university programs, NGOs, governmental organizations, private family foundations, and the industry.
At Franklin, programs like Scholarships without Borders are how we live our values.
In Spring 2022 SWB immediately reacted to the war with a community gathering in solidarity with Ukraine. In January 2023, SWB admitted a new student from Ukraine to join our other two students from Turkey and Syria. We thank our SWB Advisory Board for their unwavering support that made this possible.
In 2023 our SWB team is planning to grow the program with campus-wide activities, and further outreach and fundraising events. A main goal is to find internships for our students and to pave the way for them to be admitted to our masters programs.
Donations and Contributions of all Kinds are essential to achieving our goals. All donations go directly to support our SWB students’ needs: Academic Travel fees, the LLLS position, books, meal cards, computers, events and sports equipment. Every contribution counts. To get involved, please contact Professor Wiedmer at cwiedmer@fus.edu and/or Professor Fassl at jfassl@fus.edu.