Chamber awards scholarships to six students

The Saipan Chamber of Commerce Tuesday awarded a series of academic scholarships to six deserving local students bound for college.

The six students faced stiff competition for the $1,500 scholarships—awarded based on interviews, essays and a host of academic and other criteria—after the Chamber’s education committee saw a spike in applicants over last year, with 32 prospective scholars and 28 who qualified for the interview. The essay topic for each applicant was how their education will help the people of the CNMI.

“Our future is certainly bright with the scholarship recipients we have here,” said Chamber secretary, Kathryn Barry, who along with the other members of the committee, detailed the winners’ many accomplishments.

Among the six winners honored during the Chamber’s monthly meeting at the Saipan World Resort was Leticia Cabrera, a graduate of Mount Carmel School who will attend George Washington University in the coming year.

Cabrera told the Chamber’s committee in her interview that she hopes to study international relations and communications in the hope of aiding the CNMI’s relations with the United States and plans to intern with government agencies while studying in Washington, DC.

Winner Angela Salas, also a graduate of Mount Carmel School, will attend Chaminade University of Honolulu, where she plans to study orthodontics and hopes to improve life on Saipan by becoming the first local female orthodontist in the CNMI .

Jeong Hyun Kwon, a math whiz who graduated from Marianas Baptist Academy and will go to the University of Illinois, wants to become an engineer to help Saipan solve its water and power dilemmas.

To improve Saipan’s health, Wen Hui Ye, a graduate of the Northern Marianas Academy soon to attend the University of California at Berkeley, hopes to become the first local female pharmacist in the CNMI. She is also a burgeoning environmentalist active in beach cleanups, recycling programs and her school’s environmental club.

A career in journalism is the goal of scholarship winner Caroline Lochabay, who graduated from the Saipan International School and is bound for the University of Texas at Austin. Lochabay, who petitioned her teachers to take more advanced placement classes after school hours, hopes to intern at a local newspaper and serve as a reporter in the CNMI.

Unable to attend was Anita Hofschneider: a graduate of Marianas Baptist Academy who will attend Harvard University. “I know that I will return to the CNMI because I want to give back to the community that has given me so much,” she said in her essay.