Even today, many Riga Technical University (RTU) students face financial obstacles that threaten their ability to fully realise their dreams and develop their potential. On a daily basis, the RTU Development Foundation organises various scholarship competitions, but this Christmas a special charity campaign "Up!" is being organised to raise donations for scholarships that will be awarded to low-income but outstanding RTU students through a competitive process. This enables them to focus on their professional development and achieve their goals.

The story of Maria Dvurechenska clearly shows how important financial support can be in the lives of students. Maria studied "Medical Engineering and Physics" at RTU. It is a field that combined her childhood passion for engineering and her interest in medicine. However, her studies were not easy and carefree. During her first year of study, her family was hit hard when Maria's mother contracted a terminal illness and became totally dependent on Maria's care. ' In that moment, life split into 'before' and 'after'. Mum had an operation, after which she couldn't work because she could no longer speak. Six months later she had another operation, after which she became paralysed. At the age of 19, I became fully responsible for my paralysed mother and grandmother. I found a job straight away, but I promised myself that I would not give up my studies because my dream was to become a medical engineer. It was very difficult to take care of my paralysed mother at home, study, work in the evenings and do housework at night, but I was so motivated that I excelled in my studies. At the beginning of my 4th year, my mother died. To say it was hard would be to say nothing.''

Maria's outstanding achievements enabled her to receive various scholarships during her studies. The Severstal Distribution Excellence Scholarship, the Valdis Dombrovskis Scholarship and the Alfreds Reister Scholarship provided both financial relief and emotional encouragement. ''Receiving the scholarships was a huge support and played a role in both my personal and career development. It gave me the motivation to keep going when the going got tough and to keep going. In terms of my career, the scholarships boosted my self-confidence and belief in myself. It helped me to develop as a professional and not to be afraid of new responsibilities and challenges. Emotionally, it was very rewarding to know that someone cared about you,' says Marija about the importance of the financial support.

Thanks to her perseverance and the support of the community, Maria completed her education and now works as a medical physicist in a private medical institution. A year ago, she became the work supervisor of the radiology department. Maria really loves her job! Together with her husband, she takes care of her grandmother, who is now 92 years old, and also takes care of cats that were rescued from life on the streets! 

The aim of the charity campaign "Augšup!" is to raise donations to provide social scholarships for talented students. Every EUR 1000 donated will provide a monthly scholarship of EUR 200 to a talented RTU student for one semester.