BIMM Berlin partners with nonprofit scholarship organisation SBW Berlin
BIMM University Berlin is delighted to announce its recent partnership with SBW Berlin, a German nonprofit organisation that funds higher education and housing for socially engaged students.
Through its scholarship programme, SBW supports prospective students from international backgrounds and disadvantaged communities, including refugees, helping to turn access to education into meaningful, long-term social impact.
“We are truly delighted to embark on this new partnership with SBW, whose scholarship and housing programs provide an exceptional opportunity for our international students. We are both proud to collaborate on an initiative of tremendous importance and relevance in today’s world.”
– Robert Witoschek, International Campus Dean.
Throughout their studies, scholarship recipients are encouraged to actively engage in social projects, contributing between 2 and 8 hours per week to initiatives that create positive change. This often includes charitable work, volunteering, and other community-led efforts.
Meet Vasylysa from Ukraine.
Vasylysa is a recent graduate of BIMM Berlin’s Songwriting degree course. Originally from Kyiv, her studies were made possible as part of SBW’s refugee scholarship, which provides successful applicants with a furnished room in Berlin, tuition fee support, and/or monthly living stipends for students in need of additional financial support.
“I came here because of the war. I lived in Düsseldorf at first, but I wanted to move to Berlin to pursue my music career. At first, I wasn’t sure how to do that,” Vasylysa told us.
“My parents found out about BIMM, and we had a trip to Berlin in 2018/19 to attend one of the Open Days. And I was like wow –this is a university?!”
Since joining BIMM University Berlin 3 years ago, she has given back to the community in both Düsseldorf and Berlin in a variety of ways, including non-profit contemporary art, theatre shows, free bandura classes, forming student societies, and performances that raise awareness for the ongoing struggles of everyday people across Ukraine.
“The name of my project is Cultural Frontline. The way my gigs work is that I normally talk a lot between the songs, and I talk about the situation in Ukraine, the bandura (instrument), and try to educate people on our culture in Ukraine, while presenting this traditional instrument.” She continues.
Through this partnership with SBW Berlin, BIMM University Berlin continues its commitment to making creative education more accessible to talented students from all backgrounds. By supporting emerging artists like Vasylysa and investing in education that creates meaningful social impact, BIMM University and SBW are helping shape a future where creativity, opportunity and community go hand in hand.
“We are very delighted to support scholarship recipients like Vasylysa and to encourage her social engagement. Our scholarship recipients are generally supported through their entire course of study. That’s why it’s wonderful to see not only how the social projects—which were often presented to us as mere ideas at the beginning—develop, but also how the scholarship recipients themselves evolve during the funding period and grow alongside their studies at BIMM University Berlin or their projects. Vasylysa, for example, used to be nervous about presenting her social engagement to a large group. Now, after nearly three years, she speaks very confidently and with assurance when discussing her “Cultural Frontline” project and hardly needs any notes anymore. These are truly wonderful moments, and we’re very grateful to be able to experience them together with our scholarship recipients.”
– Dr. Yvonne Töpfer, Advisor for Students & Volunteers at SBW Berlin
