Opportunity

Recently I had occasion to be in Honolulu on job-related activities. One of the more pleasant activities included meeting with a number of our former CNMI high school students, including some of my own by the way. The students, i.e., 99 percent of them, were there going to college. Why Honolulu, Hawaii, some might wonder? The answer was less difficult to deduce than some might guess. The CNMI makes it financially possible for them to go there.

Educationally speaking, the CNMI really is the land of opportunity. If a student wants to go to college, and if he or she is a citizen, and if he or she is a long time permanent resident of the CNMI, and if he or she maintains decent grades, and if he or she can get accepted by the college of their choice, well then, they can go. There are limitations, of course. Support for most students is limited to about $8,000 annually. There are larger amounts for students who have very high grade point averages, but the basic support is enough to cover school-related costs per semester at the University of Hawaii (Manoa), and, I hasten to add, at the University of Guam.

The CNMI has an ulterior motive in allowing such a largesse to its young people: it needs a college educated workforce to advance its economy. It, the CNMI, only asks that its students come back after they graduate and ply their trade on local soil. Bear in mind, dear reader, that the “only” industry that can never cost the community more than it returns to it is Education—the absolutely only one! The CNMI recognizes this undeniable fact, hence the support. The financial support thus granted by the CNMI is through the CNMI grant and scholarship office and the SHEFA grant office.

The amount of grant money allowed is enough to cover school-related costs, as stated above. It’s enough, that is, if a student can achieve resident status at the college they go to. Hawaii and Guam offer automatic residency to CNMI students.

The students that I mentioned visiting above were majoring variously in Business, Nursing, Education, and Natural Resource Management—all areas of need in the CNMI. The Natural Resource Management major was one of my former students. The codicil to all of this is that we need to get our students, once educated, to return. The lure of the big city—and Honolulu definitely qualifies as a big city—looms large.

The grants will not cover everything that a student must pay for, of course; housing and other personal expenses must be borne by the student. But, even in that, there can be seen a silver lining: colleges routinely assist students in finding jobs to cover those other costs.

Note: the grants are not required to be repaid if the student taking advantage of them returns and works in the CNMI. It must be repaid if the student does not return.

Taken together, the CNMI’s efforts to improve the size and quality of its work force is significant. The CNMI really is the land of educational opportunity.