Tjitske Nicolai's story

Tjitske Nicolai was born on 2 February 1923 in a small village in Friesland. When the Second World War broke out, she was seventeen years old and lived in Apeldoorn with her parents, two brothers and three sisters. Growing up in a family where a university education was not the norm meant that she herself never had the chance to study. Later in life, she always felt that this was a great loss. She died in 1992, aged 69.

Despite my decision not to complete my degree at university, she always supported me in a very positive way in all the choices I made in my life. As she herself missed out on the opportunity to study, I want to honour her with this fund and offer that opportunity to others.

In memory of his mother, Allard set up the Tjitske Nicolai Fund at Utrecht University, a university in the city that has meant so much to his family. Through this fund, Allard hopes to help create a future in which talent can flourish and students are given the opportunities that his mother herself was denied.