Scholarship program for those wanting to become teachers

Students looking at pursuing a teaching career may now be able to afford taking a course at the Northern Marianas College after the U.S. Department of Education recently approved NMC’s participation in the Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher Education or TEACH Grant Program.

Open to both U.S. and non-U.S. citizens, the TEACH Grant Program is aimed at providing up to $4,000 per year to students who plan to complete or are completing the required coursework to begin a teaching career without having to demonstrate financial need.

NMC president Sharon Y. Hart led other college officials in making the announcement at the Board of Regents conference room yesterday.

Hart said they received the official approval notice via a letter dated April 27 from Erik Fosker, U.S. DOE Team Lead for School Participation Team, NW, San Francisco/Seattle Team. This makes the CNMI’s community college one of the over 700 colleges and universities throughout the nation that are eligible to receive the grant.

Hart said this will open the door for more individuals to enroll in a teaching-related degree in the Commonwealth.

“Normally, any kind of financial aid or scholarship typically must be need-based,” said Hart, explaining that this program would not require income guidelines. “That’s the beauty of it.”

Hart noted, however, that there are eligibility requirements that students must meet to be considered and eventually qualify for the grant. These include maintaining a cumulative GPA of at least 3.25 or scoring above the 75th percentile on a college admissions test; be enrolled as an undergraduate, postbaccalaureate, or graduate student, in a coursework that allows for the student to begin a teaching career, and the signing of a TEACH Grant Agreement to Serve.

The agreement stipulates that the grant recipient must serve as a full-time, highly qualified teacher at a designated low-income school for “at least four academic years” within eight years after the coursework is completed.

The teaching service to be provided should be in “high-need fields” which are bilingual education and English language acquisition, foreign language, mathematics, reading specialist, science, special education, and other fields deemed by the federal or state government as high-need.

If the TEACH Grant recipient fails to meet the requirement, the grant will be converted to a loan that must be paid in full at 6.8 percent interest.

Daisy Manglona-Propst, financial aid director at NMC, said that the recipients will be monitored to ensure that they satisfy the requirements.

Although it was noted that the program will start in the fall semester, Manglona-Propst has been instructed to check the possibility of having it over the summer period.

Interested individuals may visit the NMC campus in As Terlaje or call the School of Education 234-5498 Ext. 2232 to 36 or the Financial Aid Office at Ext. 1525 to 27 for more information.