Kintan Silvany was interning for the City of Philadelphia’s immigrant affairs office last summer, when an email popped up on her phone.
“I quickly opened it and read, ‘Dear Kintan Silvany, Congratulations! On behalf of the Voyager Scholarship …’ my world stopped,” she said. “Tears immediately filled my eyes and I called my mom. As soon as she picked up, I was yelling ‘I WON! I WON!’
“We were both crying and thanking God. It was just like a green light for my future.”
The Case Western Reserve junior had earned an Obama-Chesky Scholarship for Public Service, commonly known as the Voyager Scholarship.
Silvany is one of 100 students nationwide who last year won the award, and part of just the second cohort in the program founded by Michelle and Barack Obama and Airbnb co-founder and CEO Brian Chesky.
Voyagers receive a $10,000 stipend and an Airbnb housing credit to pursue a summer experience between their junior and senior years of college that combines work and travel. After graduation, their education about the world continues with a $2,000 Airbnb travel credit every year for 10 years, totaling $20,000.
Silvany is ecstatic. The international relations and education major has wanted to pursue public service in international education since eighth grade, when she volunteered with a summer program for migrant youth.
She also feels all the emotions of making her parents proud. They moved to the United States from Indonesia before having a family, in part to give their future children educational opportunities. So when Silvany received the scholarship, “it was like their dreams came true as well,” she said
Read more about Silvany’s experience in the latest issue of art/sci magazine.