Selected NMTI construction students to get scholarships
The Northern Marianas Technical Institute will be able to provide scholarships to its low-to-moderate income construction students this upcoming school year, thanks to $1.16 million in federal funds that the Northern Marianas Housing Corp. will release to NMTI soon.
The scholarship funds are a portion of the $254 million Community Development Block Grant- Disaster Recovery grant that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development approved for release to NMHC last Oct. 16, 2020.
Attao
Prior to NMHC sending out a request for the release of funds, NMTI and NMHC will need to finalize an inter-agency agreement first and, once that is finalized and signed, NMHC will release the $1.16 million to NMTI after 30 days.
CDBG-DR program manager Kimo Rosario met with NMTI interim chief executive officer Jodina Attao on Wednesday to discuss the release of funds. Rosario explained at that meeting that HUD requires the scholarships to only be awarded to NMTI’s low-moderate-income students studying construction to serve as a “tieback” to the initial purpose of the CDBR-DR grant, which was released to the CNMI to help fix infrastructure, housing, buildings, etc. that were devastated by Super Typhoon Yutu and Typhoon Mangkhut.
In terms of the further details of the scholarships, such as the cutoff for determining income levels, student performance requirements, and the need for a recipient to be a full-time student, Rosario said that NMHC will provide NMTI with further updates soon.
Attao said Wednesday that she plans to review and sign the agreement between NMTI and NMHC by this Friday, Aug. 13.