- Student
- 11/06/2025
Tau, Thêta, & Oma’s Soep awards for best student initiative
Rowing association Thêta, Rhetoricadispuut Tau, and the Oma’s Soep foundation won awards on Tuesday. They received the Stehven, Social Heroes, and Audience Award, respectively, at ‘Stehvent’. This is the annual event hosted by Stehven, the organization that funds Eindhoven student initiatives.
A total of eight initiatives were nominated, but only three walked away with an award. The Stehven Award went to Vo met een harde V, the live music event by Rhetoricadispuut Tau. Thêta’s successful world record attempt in continuous rowing on an ergometer was awarded the Social Heroes Award. And the Oma’s Soep foundation’s Christmas dinner for the elderly received the most public votes and therefore received the Audience Award.
Stehven
As an organization, Stehven focuses on bringing Eindhoven student initiatives to life. This can be anything from a festival or dance performance to a board game day for lonely elderly people. “Students who have a great idea can knock on our door,” says Joep Schrickx, Stehven board member and Physics student at TU/e. “This is how we try to motivate students to organize something fun in the city, and also to put Eindhoven on the map as a student city.”
Text coninues below the photo.
According to Schrickx, Stehven offers three kinds of help to students: knowledge, network, and money. “Usually, students come to us for the money,” he says with a laugh. “But we can also really help if, for example, someone wants to organize a big event, but has no idea of all the things and people involved in something like that. We generally have the knowledge and network to help someone get started.”
Stehven’s ‘money jar’ is filled by TU/e, Fontys and the municipality of Eindhoven. This is why only TU/e and Fontys students can apply.
Three winners
This year, over fifty Eindhoven student initiatives were organized with the help of Stehven. To highlight the biggest, nicest, or best initiatives, Stehven hosts its annual event ‘Stehvent’, where the winners receive a trophy. “Almost all the initiatives we help break even. The students put in a lot of time, but don’t get paid for this. So this is a nice way of giving them some extra appreciation,” says Schrickx.
Of the eight nominees, Thêta’s world record and Vo met een harde V stood out to the Stehven board. “Vo met een harde V was set up three years ago, and in those three years they’ve already grown to 650 visitors. From an organizational perspective, that’s quite an achievement in such a short time,” Schrickx says. “In addition, there’s cultural value to the initiative because of its focus on live music. And we see that it doesn’t only attract students from Eindhoven, but from all over the Netherlands.”
Text continues below the foto.
There were several reasons why Theta won the Social Heroes Award – the prize for social initiatives – says Schrickx. “They really worked on it with the entire association, they had an incredibly large reach, they broke the world record, and – perhaps most impressively – they raised more than 50,000 euros for the Dutch Heart Foundation,” he explains.
The third and final winner – of the Audience Award – was chosen not by Stehven, but by the audience in attendance. The majority of votes went to the Christmas dinner organized by the Oma’s Soep foundation, which saw elderly people being invited to dine at student houses. “These are often lonely elderly people, which makes this an extra nice initiative,” Schrickx says.
For the honor
The awards presented to Tau, Theta, and Oma’s Soep come with ‘a trophy and, more importantly, a great deal of esteem’, Schrickx says. “Money they already received from us, of course,” he says with a laugh. But, he stresses, should they need help or funding for a new initiative, the door is always open for a new application.
Discussion