Visit founder Pavlos Condellis Fund
Entrepreneur in agricultural mechanisation Pavlos Condellis founded the Pavlos Condellis Fund in 2016 at University Fund Wageningen. The fund awards scholarships to excellent Greek students to follow an MSc programme at Wageningen University & Research (WUR). After graduating, they will be able to contribute to the development of the agricultural sector in Greece with their acquired knowledge. Pavlos Condellis was unable to reap the benefits of his philanthropic support: he passed away in 2017, before the first supported student had completed his master's degree. His wife Ariane is continuing the fund.
Early September 2024 Ariane Condellis set foot on the Wageningen Campus for the third time. She came all the way from Greece to attend the Opening of the Academic Year, which this year considered the role of water for food security. Mrs. Condellis is curious about everything that happens in Wageningen, and therefore also visited the greenhouses of Unifarm prior to the ceremony. Over lunch, she caught up with the newest scholarship student of the Pavlos Condellis Fund, Nikoleta, who is pursuing a Master's degree in Plant Sciences at WUR. She also talked to several former scholarship students online. “The very positive, life-changing experience of students was so palpable,” she reminisced later, “as was ultimatelytheir ability to learn how to cooperate in their work- not very often part of the Greek thought process.”
Ariane Condellis was impressed by Wageningen's level of knowledge and ambition, as discovered during her working visit and the Opening of the Academic Year. She feels that WUR is a very international university, where Greek students can learn a lot.
"This visit has reaffirmed that setting up a scholarship fund at this dynamic university has been one of the best choices my late husband and I have made," says Ariane at the end of her visit. "To be part of such a future-oriented and at the same time human university is a very happy experience. It means a lot to me to continue my late husband’s legacy in such an inspiring environment."