The project provides scholarships to Roma students in secondary school in order to keep them in school, improve their academic performance, and increase their future opportunities, including university admission. The project includes mentors as well as families to serve as role models for Roma children and to teach them new learning strategies and methods.

Mentors can provide emotional support to a young person during mediation with the school and family. It aids in the facilitation of guidance, the provision of encouragement, and the enhancement of self-esteem. • Mentoring (one-on-one or small group mentor-student interactions centered on personal development) through trained mentors (teachers, school psychologists, and other support staff): available to students from "disadvantaged" backgrounds year-round (including holidays), particularly through face-to-face meetings to incorporate home visits and discussions with family and significant others

To avoid stigma, notions of deficiency or "need," mentoring should be paired with some "reward" (e.g. financial).

• Parental support should be included from the start and should be facilitated by trained staff. • Family support to children can be very beneficial, especially if the husband is included. If the support is consistent, genuine, and multi-layered (emotional, financial, and practical), it produces positive results and aids in crisis resolution. Such forms of family support can boost a young person's self-esteem and assist them in focusing on personal and academic goals.

• Peer-to-peer learning support is actively encouraged by mentors and teachers. Students benefit when teachers are flexible in their expectations for performance as well as assignments (and possibly attendance) on a case-by-case basis.

• School managers may liaise on behalf of students in difficult family circumstances for accessing information, social entitlements, and other rights and eligible support.

Aims: • Supporting 275 Roma secondary school students' academic excellence and improving their school attendance and academic results in central and north-western Romania from 2007 to 2011. (12 counties)

• Piloting new methods of support for Roma secondary school students that combine a scholarship with individualised regular assistance in school matters and learning, as well as mentoring • Improving the implementation of the Romanian Government's financial support programs for secondary school students