Scholarships available for Pacific islanders

The Saipan Mayor’s Office and the Saipan Higher Education Financial Assistance board announced Thursday that qualified freshmen SHEFA recipients may also tap into the 2005-2006 Asian Pacific Islander American Scholarship Fund.

The deadline for submission of required documents is Feb. 15, 2005.

“All entering freshmen of Asian and Pacific Islander descent are eligible to enter this competitive national scholarship,” the Saipan Mayor’s Office said in a media release.

Scholarship award of $2,000 will be handed out in Washington D.C. on May 2005.

Applications may now be downloaded from the APIASF website at www.apiasf.org.

APIASF is a new non-profit and charitable organization dedicated to the financial scholarship needs of Asian and Pacific Islander students. It is the only national organization that provides scholarships to Asian and Pacific Islander students.

Contributors to the scholarship fund include McDonald’s Corp., Coca-Cola, Asian McDonald’s Owner/Operators Association, Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies, Organization of Chinese Americans, Southeast Asia Resource Action Center, the University of Hawaii–Native Hawaiian Community-based Education Learning Centers, United Negro College Fund, Hispanic Scholarship Fund and former Guam Delegate Robert Underwood.

Underwood is the current chair of the APIA scholarship organization, whose “mission is to forge partnerships, building a national Asian and Pacific Islander American Scholarship organization that supports and encourages all Asian and Pacific Islander American students to pursue higher education, thereby developing future leaders who will contribute back to their communities, and ultimately, strengthening America.”

Qualification requirements include U.S. citizenship or national or a permanent U.S. resident and at least a 2.7 high school grade point average or General Educational Development equivalent.

For more information, contact Tim Leong, APIASF’s newly appointed president and executive director in San Francisco, California at (415) 808-0805 or Bill Imada of the APIASF Working Group at (213) 622-6513 ext. 288.

For more information on SHEFA, log on to www.saipanshefa.com or call Sue Dris at the SHEFA Office at 664-2585 or Florence Stephen at the Saipan Mayor’s Office at 235-7444. Questions may also be emailed to contact@saipanshefa.com.