NMC suspends Education Talent Search Program

The Northern Marianas College will stop offering the federally funded Educational Talent Search Program after its application didn’t make it to the final selection of the U.S. Department of Education.

Leo Pangelinan, NMC’s dean of Student Services, confirmed yesterday the closure of the program beginning this year.

The Educational Talent Search Program assists individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds who have the potential to succeed in higher education. It provides academic, career, and financial counseling to participants and encourages them to graduate from high school and go on to college.

Pangelinan said the grant application process for ETS funding was very competitive, with the U.S. Department of Education receiving 968 applications from all 50 states and insular areas.

“It’s unfortunate that NMC’s grant application in addition to over 500 other applicants from throughout the U.S. were not selected in this award cycle. The program has been highly instrumental in helping our students with financially-disadvantaged backgrounds receive additional support services like tutoring and counseling services,” he told Saipan Tribune.

He said that NMC will reapply for the ETS program in the next funding cycle.

In August last year, the U.S. Education Department did not pick Student Support Services for funding, forcing the college to also stop the program. That program aims to increase the college retention and graduation rates of participants and facilitate the process of transition from one level of higher education to the next. It serves 180 students at NMC per year. A special audit in early 2010 uncovered misuse of SSS funds at NMC, among other deficiencies in 2008 and 2009.

With the two programs’ closure, this leaves Upward Bound as the only program under TRiO, a federal program designed to serve and assist low-income individuals, first-generation college students, and individuals with disabilities to progress through the academic pipeline from middle school to college.

Nonetheless, Pangelinan said, they want to reassure students that NMC will continue to provide similar critical services through other channels.

He added that students will also continue to receive one-on-one academic assistance from their advisers. “In any case, we are committed to minimizing any service disruption to the program participants so they can continue to focus on their studies,” Pangelinan said.

“The college will continue to offer other federally funded student support programs, including the Upward Bound Program and the College Access Challenge Grant Program, which provide scholarship and services like tutoring, counseling, and other activities to help students enroll and succeed in college,” the NMC statement added.