Chamber names six scholarship recipients

The six recipients of scholarship awards from the Saipan Chamber of Commerce are joined by their parents and former Chamber scholars during their introduction yesterday at the Fiesta Resort & Spa Saipan’s Hibiscus Hall at the Saipan Chamber of Commerce membership meeting. (Bea Cabrera)

Cole Chambers, who will graduate from Marianas High School in five days, was named yesterday as one of the six recipients of scholarship awards from the Saipan Chamber of Commerce this year.

Instead of being discouraged in the wake of the experience of having their roof blown off at the height of Super Typhoon Yutu last October, it only strengthened Chambers’ ambition to pursue engineering at the University of Wisconsin.

“I want to design and build better structures and buildings in the CNMI so when a typhoon comes through, houses could take the typhoon’s strength. This would hopefully [put] people [in] a better financial situation and have homes that can last a long time,” he said. “Not only will a better structure be of help financially but also one’s mental state.”

Similar goals also inspired Pionnah Gregorio of Marianas High School to pursue civil engineering at Chapman University in California. “In my essay, I talked about infrastructure and how to minimize the damage and waste from future natural disasters,” she said.

Besides Chambers and Gregorio, the other Chamber scholars are Reica Ramirez of Mt. Carmel School, Kevin Wolf of MHS, Elaine Enriquez of MHS, and David Phan of MHS.

The Chamber gave $2,000 to each of the six scholarship recipients.

The Chamber received 50 scholarship applications this year.

“We had 23 applicants from high school level and 27 from the college level,” said Chamber president Velma Palacios.

The criteria required of applicants are still the same as in previous years: academics, volunteer work, essay, and interview results.

“I read all the essays and majority were about personal experiences. …One student mentioned that, even though their house had been damaged by Yutu, that student still continued to go to school and nobody knew. …This shows resiliency and heart to move on,” Palacios said.

She acknowledged the many gifted and talented students in the CNMI. “This year and every year we get a good batch of scholars. We really want to give more and it’s really hard but we try our best.”

She said the Chamber looks forward to the scholars returning to the CNMI and creating an impact on the community.

Ramirez, who is bound for the University of California in Berkeley to pursue a double major in media studies and political science, said her essay was about many people’s lack of interest in labor and immigration issues.

“Through my major, I could help voices to be heard, inform the people about solutions and educate people,” Ramirez said.

Other awardees want to work on health and mental care systems in the CNMI.

Wolf wants to pursue psychology and theater as his double major at the Illinois Wesleyan University. “With a major in psychology, I plan to be a clinical psychologist and, one day move to psychiatry,” he said. “I know students are struggling with mental health and not everyone can afford treatment and some parents don’t believe that mental health is a real issue.”

In her essay, Enriquez, who is finishing her bachelor’s degree in education at the Northern Marianas College, talked about suicide and how teachers can help prevent it.

Phan, who is currently taking up education at NMC and will soon transfer to Portland State University to take up health studies and community health education, said there’s been a lot of talks and issues raised about health care, “but not much movement has been made. I wanted to attack it from a different angle. Instead of focusing on primary care, maybe we should shift our focus to preventive measures.”

Former scholarship recipients—press secretary Kevin Bautista, Commonwealth Casino Commission auditor Michael Chu, and the Legislative Bureau’s Alexis Hofschneider gave inspirational speeches yesterday.

The Chamber scholarship program is open to graduating high school students, current college students, and students in trade and technical education.