Airbnb chief donates $100m to Obama scholarship fund
The co-founder and chief executive of Airbnb, Brian Chesky, has donated $100m to Barack Obama’s foundation to fund scholarships for students pursuing careers in public service, with the awards including multiple stipends for travel.
Each so-called Voyager scholarship will grant $50,000 to rising college juniors to cover tuition costs over two years as well as a $10,000 grant and Airbnb credit to fund a summer academic trip designed by the student. Scholarship winners will also receive an Airbnb credit worth $2,000 a year for 10 years after their graduation, which is on top of Chesky’s donation, a foundation spokesperson said.
“If we want this next generation of leaders to be able to do what they need to do, they have to meet each other. They have to know each other. They have to understand each other’s communities,” Obama said in a video announcement.
“You’re going to find young people from every corner of this country who are going to be future change makers. There are leaders everywhere. We just have to find them,” he added.
Obama and Chesky plan to meet with scholarship recipients at an annual conference to talk about service and leadership.
“There are young people across the country who have a passion for public service, but can’t pursue it because of their student loan debt,” Chesky said. “We want to help reduce that burden.”
Chesky’s donation is one of the two largest the Obama Foundation has ever received, tied with a $100m donation from the Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos, in November.
About 43 million Americans carry student loans worth $1.6tn, according to federal figures. Joe Biden promised to cancel $10,000 in federal student debt per person while campaigning, but has not yet done so. He said in April that he was continuing to study what action to take on student loans.
The Voyager scholarship has opened applications via the website Scholarship America for the first 100 students it will fund. Applicants must be entering their junior year of college at a four-year US university and must be an American citizen, permanent resident or have a deferred action status under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program. The deadline to apply is 14 June.
Scholarship America is managing the application process, but the Obama Foundation will select recipients, a spokesperson for the foundation said.
Students must demonstrate a commitment to public service, which the program’s website defines broadly as “careers in government, nonprofits or the private sector”, including occupations ranging “from community organizing to social work and from entrepreneurship to the arts”.
The Obama Foundation has recently funded community organizations working to close opportunity gaps for boys and young men of color as well as to fund girls’ education, according to its 2020 tax filings.
“Education is personal for me,” said Michelle Obama, the former first lady. “I’ve met so many young people who are interested in public service, but they’re wondering how they’re going to pay for school or whether they’ll get to see the world beyond their own community.”