Harvard scholarship, other aid now available

By MARCONI CALINDAS
REPORTER

Saipan Mayor Juan Borja Tudela is reminding all high school principals on Saipan to provide public and private schools, as well as the Northern Mariana College, with follow up information and updates on the Saipan Higher Education Financial Assistance, a financial program being administered by the Office of the Mayor.

This is in line with the Office’s program to help Saipan’s talented and intelligent high school students who are being kept back from pursuing college due to financial difficulties. Tudela said he would like to make sure that all graduating high school seniors who reside on Saipan have been informed by this opportunity.

The mayor wants all seniors to know that such a program exists as well as other college financial aids from organizations identified by the Office of the Mayor and SHEFA. Some of these grants come from the Gates Millennium Scholarship program and the Asian and Pacific Islander Freshmen Scholarship.

The SHEFA program aims to provide supplementary financial assistance to qualified residents of Saipan including the Northern Islands for post-secondary education on Saipan or abroad “with the expectation of recipients returning to Saipan with the necessary and sufficient knowledge, skill, attitude and work ethic in order to provide services on Saipan in the private sector, government, nongovernmental organizations and not-for-profit organizations.”

The mayor and SHEFA are also informing prospective students that the Harvard University Financial Aid Initiative of 2004 is now available.

The Harvard financial assistance caters to low- and moderate-income families whose talented children aspire to attend Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Initiated by Harvard University president Lawrence H. Summers, the grant has four components: financial assistance, recruitment, admissions and summer academic (preparatory) program on campus.

Students from families with a household combined income of $40,000 and below will not be required to contribute to the cost of attending Harvard for their college-aged children. Previous contribution was expected to be $2,300 but under the new plan it is now zero. Those families whose income falls between $40,000 and $60,000 will have reduced contributions by an average of $1,250, according to the Harvard University Gazette.

For more information on these grants, visit the websites http://fao.fas.harvard.edu/index.htm and www.saipanshefa.com or call at (617) 495-1581 for the Harvard opportunity.