Saipan Municipal Council acting Chairman Ramon B. Camacho said the Association of Mariana Islands Mayors, Vice Mayors, & Elected Municipal Council Members, or AMIM, will start accepting applications by the end of November and award the scholarships by the end of December.
Funding will come from the annual AMIM membership dues.
The municipal officials met yesterday in the council chamber to discuss program, which they said was the vision of then-Piti Mayor Isabel Haggard of Guam.
The municipal officials said the scholarship program was presented to AMIM in 2004, and its goal is the development and advancement of the local workforce.
At the time, the municipal officials added, the association pledged to allocate a certain percentage of the association fees to areas of studies involving culture, linguistics, Marianas history, tourism and agriculture.
Last year, at the AMIM general assembly on Rota, the association voted to include trade skills in the scholarship problem as proposed by Camacho and Association of CNMI Councils president Felipe Atalig of Saipan.
Saipan Council Chairwoman Antonia Tudela, Tinian Vice Chairwoman Charlene M. Lizama, Chairman Antonio H. Borja, Secretary Eugene L. Villagomez, Rota Chairman Roy Masga, Vice Chairman Alfred Apatang and Secretary Vincent Calvo also supported the program.
Atalig said Guam will be allocated $2,000 while Rota, Tinian and Saipan will get $1,000 each per academic year.
The scholarship program is for U.S. citizens on Guam, Rota, Tinian and Saipan, and the applicant must be in his third or fourth year of undergraduate studies.
The scholarship is strictly for tuition, related fees or books only, and the recipient must maintain a minimum grade point average of 3.0 on a 4.0 scale and should be on full-time status in college.
An applicant is required to obtain at least one letter of recommendation from the mayor of the village where the applicant resides.
Applicants from the CNMI must also obtain a letter of recommendation from the municipal council members.
Extracurricular activities directly related to AMIM’s priority studies will be considered by the selection /review committee.
The committee will comprise of AMIM members from Guam and the Northern Marianas and they will act on the applications based on the guidelines approved during the special assembly on Guam last month.
The AMIM scholarship is not automatically renewed, and a recipient must re-submit an application.
In return for the scholarship, recipients are required to work in their communities for a minimum of six months before graduating from college.
Before they adjourned yesterday, Camacho commended the AMIM Committee on Socio-Cultural Affairs headed by Agana Heights Mayor Paul M. McDonald of Guam and the council members from Tinian and Rota for a job well done.
