Habele Report Looks Back on Work in 2024

Student in Micronesia with a Habele tuition scholarship
A Habele Scholarship student proudly displays her school report card.

Habele is a US nonprofit, created by former Peace Corps Volunteers who lived and worked in Micronesia, and who wanted to remain engaged with the communities they served after their Peace Corps service.

The word Habele is a Ulithian word. Ulithian is one of the many languages used in Micronesia. It means “to be” but it also has a symbolic meaning. In that way it means to “make it be” or to accomplish a plan, or a dream. Habele was established in 2006. To this day, nearly all those who donate to, or volunteer for, Habele in the US are either former Peace Corps Volunteers, or other Americans who lived and worked in Micronesia.

In lateJanuary, Habele published its annual report to donors and volunteers. The document provides a review of Habele’s activities over the course of 2024. Among the highlights:

-151 scholarships were awarded, sending low- and middle-income students to top performing private elementary and high schools across all four Micronesian States.

-7,102 books were sent directly to children under five years of age through the Young Island Readers book-a-month program.

-69 boxes of books were provided to libraries, schools, and community health centers.

-12 boxes, tools & equipment were sent, for school and club-based robotics, 3D printing, and traditional vocational skills programs and mentorships.

-$36,000 in local capacity grants were awarded, funding on-island collaborations at schools and libraries, including the first of two grants for Micronesian Seminar’s reopening.

“So many Americans with a love for Micronesia help out,” explained Neil Mellen, the Founder and sole full-time employee of Habele. “This report gives them a chance to see the scope and depth of our work and I hope also solicits some pride in them for the work.”

As detailed in the report, Habele neither sought nor received any financial support from the US or FSM Governments in 2024. As such, Habele funded its operation entirely from donations generously made one hundred and thirteen individuals in the United States, as well as funds from an endowment established by such individual Americans.

The report can be found online at www.habele.org.

Summer Break an Opportunity for STEM Development in Chuuk

A team of students and educators from Pohnpei broke from summer relaxation to share their enthusiasm for high school robotics with peers in Chuuk.

Three students and two educators from Our Lady of Mercy Catholic High School (OLMCHS) travelled to Chuuk to lead a four-day robotics workshop. Over the course of the training, students from public and private high schools across Chuuk partnered with the Pohnpei team to build, operate and compete their very own robots. For Weipat High School, located in Chuuk’s Northwest Islands, this represented the school’s first hands-on interaction with the new technology.

The building workshop was sponsored by Habele, a US non-profit that designed and implemented a robotics league extending across all four states of the FSM. OLMCHS was one of the first schools in Pohnpei to join in the Robo League in 2018, and has hosted annual Robo Day competitions, in which participating high schools gather to compete for the title of Pohnpei Robo Day Champions. Chuuk Department of Education generously made the Chuuk High School gymnasium available for the week, as well as providing food and encouragement for all the participants.

Teams of all experience levels at the training began with an unassembled robotics kit, and with the help of the team from Pohnpei, worked through each of the parts and their functions. Surrounded by piles of metal and electronic components, each school team tweaked and troubleshot their way to a functioning robot. While beginning students have clear instructions to follow, experimenting and exploring with the equipment is encouraged.

“Creative problem solving is key here,” said Matt Coleman, Habele’s Director of Operations. “Students learn to analyze a challenge, and use the parts they have on hand to resolve it. It is an important skill to develop for any vocation.”

After completing their first robotics build, teams worked on controlling the robots through a variety of simple tasks. As the workshop progressed, challenges became more complex. The culmination of the training was a series of competitive events to test robotics dexterity and function for points. Prior to the final competition, students were encouraged by Dr. Margarita Cholymay, Director of Chuuk Department of Education, who praised them for learning new skills, and urged them to take advantage of the educational opportunities provided. The team from Saruman Chuuk Academy won first place in the competition, with Xavier High School coming in second, and Weipat High School taking third. All teams demonstrated tremendous growth over the course of the training. Students will return to their schools with a working robot, and enthusiasm to share what they learned with their peers.

“Peer to peer training encourages active participation and engagement among learners,” said Russell Figueras, Principal of OLMCHS, and one of the trainers for the workshop. “When students are involved in teaching their peers, they become more invested in the learning process and more likely to grasp and retain the information. This was an awesome learning experience for our students.”

The training workshop is the last Habele-sponsored robotics event in Chuuk. The US nonprofit is sunsetting its involvement in high school robotics across the FSM after over a decade, but hopes robotics education evolves further through support from FSM national and state governments.

Habele will continue to offer tuition scholarships to students attending private elementary and high schools in the FSM, donations to schools and libraries, direct monthly book deliveries to children under the age of five (“Young Island Readers”), and donations of tools to traditional carvers and weavers.

Hands On STEM Brings Micronesian Students Together

This May, students from public and private schools across Pohnpei gathered at the Our Lady of Mercy Catholic High School gymnasium for the 5th Annual Pohnpei Robo Day. This yearly exhibition of applied Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) allows students to demonstrate their creative problem-solving skills in friendly competition with peers.

Five teams went head-to-head with the robots constructed by each robotics club, maneuvering the machines through a series of timed challenges for points, with the final match determining the Robo Day Champion and runner up.

Pohnpei Island Central School’s team (PICS) entered the 2023 competition with the momentum of having recently competed internationally at the FIRST Global International Robotics Challenge in Switzerland. In 2022, the PICS team represented the entire FSM at the challenge, placing highly among the other small nations competing. This year, however, home field advantage carried the day, and Our Lady of Mercy Catholic High School kept the Champion’s trophy.

The team placements were:

First – Our Lady of Mercy Catholic High School
Second – Pohnpei Island Central School
Third – Pohnpei Catholic School
Fourth – Nanpei Memorial High School
Fifth – Calvary Christian Academy

A new challenge is already in the works for next year’s Robo Day, requiring all robotics clubs to start from scratch in designing a robot to compete.

The Robo League is uniquely student-driven, allowing students to explore and experiment with complex technologies and concepts in a hands on way. Robo Day challenges give all participants the opportunity to apply knowledge and skills to tough problems, and come up with creative and effective solutions. Even students who might not see themselves as “math and science types” can be drawn in to engage a lifelong love of STEM.

“The young people at Robo Day will grow up to help lead the FSM,” says Matt Coleman, Habele’s Director of Operations. “The Robo League is helping them develop the skills and knowledge they need to thrive in a world driven by STEM innovation.”

The Robo League was introduced to Pohnpei in 2018 by Habele, a US nonprofit founded by former Peace Corps volunteers who taught in Micronesia. Habele first introduced robotics to Micronesia in 2011, and has trained and supported participating high schools across all four FSM states through a technical assistance partnership with the Office of Insular Affairs.

Habele Announces 54 Tuition Scholarships for 2022-23

US nonprofit continues to expand access to Micronesia’s highest performing private elementary and high schools.

(Colonia, Yap) Fifty-four promising students across Micronesia have been awarded tuition scholarships to attend the nation’s top-performing private elementary and high schools across three Micronesian states.

The K12 tuition scholarships are provided by Habele, a US nonprofit serving students and schools across the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM). Established by former Peace Corps Volunteers who lived and taught in the Islands, Habele has been granting tuition assistance to Micronesian students since 2006.

“These investments in individual students highlight the deep personal connections between the United States and our allies in the Freely Associated States,” observed US Congresswoman Aumua Amata Coleman Radewagen of American Samoa. “Though our governments are united by formal alliances and treaties, it is the personal ties of our peoples, over decades of shared history, that make the relationships truly vibrant. My family lived in Micronesia for almost 17 years, both on Majuro and Saipan and I also lived on Guam while attending the University of Guam, while I have nieces and nephews with Marshallese and Chamorro heritage through marriages of my brothers. As a former Peace Corps employee in the Pacific, “I’m also pleased to see the scholarships were established by former Peace Corps volunteers”

The Compact of Free Association (COFA) allows Micronesian students to come to the United States for college, where they are eligible for generous federal grants that pay for their higher education. However, many young people in Micronesia -particularly from lower income families- aren’t able to take advantage of these opportunities because, they don’t complete high school prepared to succeed in American higher education. Habele’s K12 tuition scholarships help place such students at high achieving, independent schools, and on a path towards ultimately obtaining a college degree.

Habele Scholars come from villages across the hundreds of islands and atolls that comprise the Federated States of Micronesia. Students from Yap, Chuuk, and Pohnpei, as well as their lagoon and outer islands, will be attending eleven different schools in 2022-23, including Xavier High School, Saint Mary’s, Faith Christian Academy, and SDA Schools in Yap, Chuuk and Pohnpei.

The K12 scholarships are entirely funded by donations from individual Americans who support Habele. Most are themselves former Peace Corps Volunteers, civil servants, tourists or contractors who spent time in Micronesia.

This is the seventeenth year Habele has awarded merit and needs-based scholarships, which average between 50 and 75 percent of the total tuition families owe. The nongovernmental organization also provides book donations, support for traditional skills mentorships, and organizes high school-based robotics clubs. Habele remains the only US nonprofit exclusively focused on serving students and schools within the Federated States.

Among the 54 scholarships awarded are several Memorial Scholarships. These honor the legacy of specific individuals whose life or work “embodied the best of the longstanding US-Micronesian partnership.” Introduced this year, the Martin Yinug Memorial Scholarship, honors the late Chief Justice of the Micronesian Supreme Court, and his outspoken commitment to public service, rule of law and judiciary independence. Another, the Marshall Wees Memorial Scholarship, honors a US Navy doctor who battled an outbreak of yaws that was ravaging the native population of Federai Island during the War in the Pacific.

“Being one of the Habele Scholarship recipients for the past two years is a tremendous honor and a joy,” said Sheridan Giltamag. A rising junior at Our Lady of Mercy Catholic High School, Miss Giltamag earned a 3.9 grade point average over the course of last school year. She and her family have also been involved in WeavingConnections, a Habele program to support mentor-based preservation of traditional weaving skills.

“The scholarship indeed helps my parents with tuition obligations at OLMCHS in Pohnpei. In addition to the financial support, Habele Scholarship has motivated and helped me in many ways, which include keeping up with my grades, spending more time with my school work, and the importance of education and my future.”

Pohnpei high school students leverage online training for STEM development

Students at high schools participating in the Habele Robo League across the FSM are taking advantage of online training opportunities to develop new skills for their school robotics clubs. At Our Lady of Mercy Catholic High School in Pohnpei, seven students and a teacher recently completed a twenty-hour training course to become certified in the basics of VEX V5 robotics. 

This course was introduced to schools in the 2019-20 school year through the Habele Certification Challenge, a program incentivizing staff and students to pursue individual learning, with an emphasis on developing opportunities for peer-to-peer instruction. This year, schools were again invited to participate in the certification challenge, with both new students and veteran students incentivized to grow their knowledge of core materials. Schools with a staff member and student earning certification were awarded a 3D printer to add a new dimension of hands on technical training for robotics clubs. Our Lady of Mercy Catholic High School was one of the first schools to add a 3D printer to their school’s STEM capacity, and continues to set the pace this year for students engaging in technical training and growth. 

OLMCHS’s online robotics training is supported by a robust wireless network, which was equipped in the early days of the pandemic by a partnership between Habele and the Office of Insular affairs. This buildout of wireless capacity served the dual purpose of providing schools with the capacity to still make use of expatriate teachers (across a variety of subjects), and allowing robotics clubs to independently engage with STEM learning online. 

Habele is a US nonprofit, established by former Peace Corps Volunteers, that serves students and schools across Micronesia. Habele provides tuition scholarships, book donations, tools for traditional craftsmen, and introduced high school-based robotics to the FSM in 2011. Support for the Robo League comes through a partnership with the Office of Insular Affairs. 

Any student at a participating Robo League high school in Micronesia is invited to take the training challenge. All details can be found at www.habele.org/training.

Habele Scholarships: Report Cards Show Achievement, Hard Work

Each year, former Peace Corps Volunteers and other Americans with a personal connection Micronesia donate to help Habele award tuition scholarships to ambitious students in the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM).

Since 2006, Habele’s K12 scholarships have ensured that bright, hardworking students have access to the best education possible. Based on need and merit, these scholarships largely serve remote outer island, rural village, and female students though all students across Yap, Chuuk, Pohnpei and Kosrae may apply.

A handful of independent schools scattered across Micronesia have consistently demonstrated graduation rates, test scores, and college entrance rates far beyond those in the government schools. Situated in the district capitals of Micronesia, these faith-based, nonprofit schools depend on modest tuition fees to operate.

Even with discounts, many of the lowest income Micronesian families cannot afford the modest costs of school such as Xaiver High School, Yap SDA School, Faith Christian Academy, or Our Lady of Mercy. Habele scholarships, which range on a cases-by-case basis from 50 to 75 percent of tuition owed, extend access to the most financially challenged students.

Twenty-six students were awarded scholarships for the 2021-22 school year, attending eight different elementary and high schools across three of the Micronesian states. The average scholarship for the year was $615.00.

Families and scholars commit to provide report cards over the course of the year, and those first quarter grades are now coming into Habele.

Case-in-point are LJ and Tyrah, a pair of cousins from the very sparsely populated Island of Asor on the Atoll of Ulithi. Ulithi, famous for its role as a secretive naval base and staging area during the War in the Pacific, is one of the Outer Islands of Yap State.The two young women are attending Yap International Christian (YIC) for intermediate school. For both it is the first time living and going to school beyond the shores of their tiny island home.

Despite the challenges of adjustment -Yap Proper has a population near 5,000, or nearly a hundred times that of Asor- both are doing well, and each earned a place on the YIC honor roll for the first quarter.

We are just so proud of them,” explained Modesta Yangmog, the girls sponsor on Yap, who also leads the Asor Womens Association (AWA). “We took them out for dinner last night in reward and recognizing their achievements. I’m proud of their hard work, and they know it’s a long hard road ahead, but it helps so much knowing they can focus on their studies, and we can focus on supporting that, knowing Habele can help with the tuition.”

Habele’s founder, a former Peace Corps Volunteer who taught in the public schools of the Outer Islands of Yap, echoed Yangmog’s praise for the students. “The modest financial investments Habele’s donors and volunteers are making through K12 tuition scholarship are just that: modest. They pale in comparison to tremendous investment these students are making in themselves, their futures, and the long-term success and vibrancy of their islands,” explained Neil Mellen, of Habele. “Helping place these and other hardworking students and ambitious future leaders into the best possible classroom is the easy part.”

Habele fundraising t-shirts now for sale!

In 2006 a group of former Peace Corps Volunteers established a US-based nonprofit to advance educational opportunity and access across Micronesia.

Since that time Habele has provided book donations, awarded tuition scholarships, supported cultural mentors and created a Micronesia wide high school robotics league.

For a decade and a half, Habele’s unique and distinctive t-shirts have been sent to, and worn by, students, teachers and volunteers throughout Micronesia. They raise awareness and celebrate the work of our partners. They showcase designs, patterns and forms distinctive to the Federated States.

Now select Habele shirts can be purchased online with all proceeds benefiting the work of Habele!

Pohnpei Science Fair Highlights Robotics Learning

In May, students from high schools and elementary schools across Pohnpei gathered for the 2021 Science Fair at Pohnpei Island Central School (PICS). The PICS booth showcased the achievements of the school’s Robo Club, including a full scale competition game board for visitors to try their hand at directing robots through various challenges.

In addition to opportunities for hands-on interaction with robotics, PICS displayed their state-of-the-art 3D printer, one of the few to be found in the islands. The printer will be used to fabricate custom parts for robotics builds and competitions, while growing student knowledge of a rapidly evolving technology. PICS was one of four high schools across the Federated States of Micronesia to be awarded a 3D printer, after having robotics instructors and students successfully complete a virtual robotics certification course.

PICS has been a member of the Habele Robo League since 2018, and is one of 23 participating high schools across the FSM.

 

Habele K12 Tuition Scholarships Micronesia, FSM

Invest in Scholarships for Micronesian Students

Friends of Habele,

Once a year, this fundraising letter is sent to a modest list of individual Americans with some personal connection to the Islands of Micronesia. You, the reader, may be a returned Peace Corps Volunteer, formerly of the State Department, family of a serviceman or official who served in the Islands, an academic with regional expertise, or a one-time tourist who fell in love with Micronesia.

Every spring we write asking for support to award K12 tuition scholarships. Promising students who need financial assistance to attend Micronesia’s top-rated schools send us applications. We write checks to the school in the student’s names for a portion of tuition. Their families pay the rest. Over the school year these students provide us report cards, photos and letters.

Each year, the number of scholarships awards depends on the response to this letter and donations made at the end of the calendar year. Deserving requests always exceed Habele’s ability to meet them. Scholarship are entirely funded by individual donations, never grants. That is not for want of grant writing and solicitations. Despite years of attempts, the life-altering scholarships have never received support beyond those sent by private individuals like you.

I am very proud of all of Habele’s work. High school robotics, targeted book donations and cultural mentorships are all highly effective and efficient. But tuition scholarships -the direct investment in the future of a singular young Micronesian working to advance themselves- is what I take greatest pride in.

I hope you feel the same way. Please donate now by check or online at www.habele.org/donate.

Thank you,

-NM

New to Habele? Learn what we do, in 90 seconds, from the students we serve!

Schools Across Micronesia Earn Robotics Certification

Thirty seven teachers and students at high schools across the Federated States of Micronesia have earned certification in robotics operation and instruction.

The Robo Certification Challenge was opened by Habele Outer Island Education Fund in December of 2020, offering participating high schools the opportunity to advance their understanding of robotics, and earn cutting edge equipment for their robotics clubs.

The challenge consisted of completing a free, online certification course of about twenty hours of material, and passing a test on the the information learned. The remote robotics course requires no background in the subject, and covers basic robotics concepts, construction, programming, and instruction of others in the material. The course was made available to all staff and students at high schools participating in the Habele Robo League.

The first four high schools to have both a teacher and student earn certification were awarded a state-of-the-art 3D printer for their robotics club. Laptops were awarded to the first teacher to obtain certification, as well as the first students in grades 9-12 who earned the certificate.

Between December 2020 and the close of the Certification Challenge in March of 2021, six schools across three FSM states had thirty-seven teachers and students certified. The four high schools winning the grand prize of a 3D printer were Yap Catholic High School, Our Lady of Mercy Catholic High School, Pohnpei Catholic School, and PICS High School. An honorable mention goes to Akoyikoyi School in Chuuk, who – while not a high school – had an eighth grader and teacher both earn certification.

“Schools are taking advantage of creative ways to expand their students knowledge,” says Matt Coleman of Habele. “This challenge meshed remote instruction with new material, and gave students in island classrooms another tool in learning how to train their peers.”

The Certification Challenge is the latest adaptation and evolution of Habele’s FSM-wide high school robotics league. Established in 2011, Habele Robo provides hands-on STEM learning that excites students about real world application of math and science.

“This has been a challenging year for schools in Micronesia, but Habele has been with us every step of the way, says Russell Figueras of OLMCHS. “From donations of campus networking equipment, to online technical instruction, Habele has helped us empower classroom instruction during a time of uncertainty for our school’s operations.”

Habele is a registered nonprofit founded by Peace Corps volunteers serving in Micronesia.