habelefund Scholarships

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.”

habelefund Scholarships

Habele Awards Scholarships, Celebrates US-Micronesian Partnership

Sheridan Giltamag of Yap, one of twenty-two Habele tuition scholarship recipients.
She will be a freshman at Our Lady of Mercy Catholic High School in Pohnpei in the fall.

Twenty-two students from across the four states of Micronesia were awarded tuition scholarships this week, making it possible for them to attend faith-based independent elementary and high schools in Yap, Chuuk and Pohnpei.

Habele tuition scholarships are funded entirely by the individual donations of American citizens who share a love of Micronesia and the belief that high quality education can unlock the incredible personal potential of some of the world’s most remote students.

Each tuition grant is set at a level that maintains family ownership in student achievement, while lightening the financial burden. Often scholarships cover between fifty and seventy-five percent of school tuition and fees. Students must maintain and report high levels of academic achievement every quarter, applying each year for continued support.

Habele is a US nonprofit established by former Peace Corps Volunteers who lived and taught in Micronesia. It first issued tuition scholarships in 2006. This year 30 individual Americans from 16 different states donated to fund the 2020-21 tuition scholarships.

Donors included former Peace Corps Volunteers, tourists who had visited Micronesia, and the sons and daughters of Americans who served in Micronesia in the US Armed Forces.

Three of the twenty-two scholarships awarded this year were memorial scholarships.

“Memorial scholarships honor the legacy of Americans whose life or work demonstrated exceptional commitment to the people of Micronesia,” explained Habele’s Founder, Neil Mellen “They embodied the best of the longstanding US-Micronesian partnership.”

The Lee Huddleston memorial scholarship, established this year, honors the life of Lee Joseph Huddleston of Eugene, Oregon. Lee lost his life in February of 2020, rescuing a group of children caught in a rip tide while swimming off Moch island, where he was working for the Chuuk State Department of Education. Lee had also served as a Peace Corps Volunteer, teaching in Weno.

The Leona Peterson Memorial Scholarship provides tuition assistance to a young woman in elementary or high school high school attending an independent school in either Yap or Pohnpei. It honors the work of Mrs. Paterson, who led Department of Aging in the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands during the late 1970s and early 80s.

The Marshall Paul Wees Memorial Scholarship is named for a US Navy doctor who served the people of Ulithi Atoll during the War in the Pacific. Dr. Wees, working with limited supplies and assisted only by a pharmacist’s aide, stamped out the terrible scourge of yaws, a debilitating disease that was ravaging the Ulithian population.

“At this time of so many challenges across the globe, I hope these modest tuition scholarships will be a subtle reminder of the deeply personal, decades long and historically unique partnership between the Micronesian and American Peoples” explained Mellen.