Update on FSM Scholarship Board

Ran annim ngeni ami meinisin,

I wanted to provide an update on FSM Scholarship as your representative on the Board.  I called the FSM Scholarship Staff yesterday about the release of the money for graduate and post-graduate scholarship funds and so far the money has not been disbursed.  The President did approve our list of students and amounts for both undergraduate and graduate studies.  It is a matter of finance from what I am told.  I will call finance and see what information I can get and help push along the disbursements of checks.  I have also been told that Congress approved $250,000 for scholarship, but I need to also confirm that.  If it is true, our Congressmen are working in the right direction and deserve much credit.

I have also requested from the Board that we give the staff questions that we have as new board members and questions from the Chuuk Reform and/or the Micsem.   The staff will then answer the questions, and then we will have another News Release posting the answers to the questions.  This is the best we can do for now without a website.  I proposed to the Board that we have until next Friday to submit questions and that the staff has one week to provide answers.  So please send questions to me if you have any.

As for the website, I am still looking for funds.  I did meet with the Australian Ambassador about assisting with a website and also having her scholarship information available on our website along with China scholarship and any other scholarship available to our FSM students.  Eventually, it would also be great to have the individual state scholarship information also on the website.  The Goal is to have a one stop website for our students to gather all information on available scholarships and of course for transparency purposes.

Tirow pwan Kinisou Chapur.