Scholarships boost

Education

By David North

FORTY or 50 new scholarships for American universities have been estab lished for Pacific islanders. The new grants, which will start in the fall of 1995,

were made possible by legislation pushed

through the Congress by American

Samoa delegate Eni F H Faleomavaega.

The congressman squeezed out SI million out of the tight US budget for this purpose, and secured the needed legislat ive authorisation for the programme, two separate processes in the American political system. The scholarships will be for university students, both graduate and undergraduate, who are from the Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Niue, Papua New Guinea, the Solomons, Tonga, Tuvalu, Western Samoa and Vanuatu.

Affluent Nauru did not make the list nor did the French colonies.

The programme will be administered by the United States Information Agency (USIA) which also operates the much larger and older Fulbright pro gramme (which paid my way to New Zealand some years ago).

Faleomavaega’s scholarships are, in a sense, an addition to, and a modification of, the Fulbright programme. The con fressman was aware that while the ulbright programme provided the US education for tens of thousands of foreign students over a period of more than 40 years, only 80 of them came from the independent islands of the Pacific. Mean while, despite the presence of the new programme, Pacific islanders remain

eligible for the Fulbright scholarships.

Like the Fulbrights, the new scholar ships will help with travel and education expenses; they can be used at American Mainland universities, as well as in Hawaii and in the American island territories. Unlike the Fulbrights, they will be available to both undergraduates

and to graduate students. (The Fulbright

programme provides no assistance to

undergraduates). In announcing the

firogramme’s passage, and signature into aw, Faleomavaega noted; “In my dis trict, American Samoa, our students are eligible to participate in both federal Pell Grants and local scholarship pro grammes. Students from the South Pacific nations are not so fortunate and few have the means to study in the United States.”

Since the programme is a brand-new one, and will not start funding anyone’s education until September 1995, many elements of the programme remain to be determined. Those who are familiar with such programmes, however, make the

following observations:

this will be a competitive programme,

and it is assumed that not everyone applying will receive a grant; in this competition those with better marks and with the more well-rounded resumes will do better than others; • a reasonably well-qualified student from a lightly-populated area that has not hitherto participated in such a programme (eg. Niue or Tuvalu) would probably get the nod over an equally qualified student who stands tenth on the list from a larger nation (eg. Fiji or

Papua New Guinea);

• it probably helps, in the competition, to have already secured admission to an American university. (Getting the grant and getting admitted are two separate

processes);

• all else being equal, an applicant who has never been to the US should stand a better chance than someone who has lived there in the past; and • finally, the 1995 competition will be the easiest one in what presumably will be a long-term programme. This is the case for two reasons: first, this is a new programme, so there will be no group of alumni who will encourage others to

apply (I learned about Fulbrights from

people who had used the programme);

secondly, there may well be a provision making it possible for some people to spend more than one year in the States on this scholarship. To the extent that is true, there will be fewer openings in the years to come.

One final bit of advice to interested students. US universities, unlike those in the islands, in Australia and in New Zealand, pay close attention to the

results of highly structured, pen-and

pencil tests given a few times a year in a few locations. These are the Scholastic

Aptitude Tests (SATs) for potential

undergraduates, and the Graduate Re cords Examinations (GREs) for those

going to graduate school. People seeking

advanced degrees in law and medicine in the US take other tests. One must apply to take these tests months before submit ting one’s application for admission, which, in turn, can be as long as nine months before the term begins.

Taking the tests, further, may involve an off-island trip. For more information check with counsellors at universities, or write to the Educational Testing Service, Princeton, NJ, 08541, USA. In short, if you are interested in these scholarships, get going right away. □