Governor announces plan to increase scholarship amounts for ASCC students
Governor Togiola Tulafono announced during his paid weekend radio program that he plans to increase the amounts of scholarship money for recipients attending the American Samoa Community College.
According to Togiola, when he took over as Governor, ASCC scholarship recipients were receiving $600 per year. Since then, the administration worked hand in hand with the scholarship board and the result was an increase to the current amount of $1,200.
Now Togiola says he aims to increase the scholarship amounts once again, to $2,000 per year. According to the Governor, his goal is to have the proposed increase go into effect as early as next month.
He said he is requesting a scholarship board meeting to discuss the final amounts and sign checks so they can be released in December.
This means the December check for scholarship students would be $1,000 which would cover one semester.
Togiola explained that efforts to increase the scholarship monies is based on government research carried out about 4 years ago which revealed that only 35% of students who graduated from local high schools and travelled directly off island for college returned home with their degrees.
On the other hand, Togiola said that about 80% of students that graduated from local high schools and attended ASCC for two years before going off island for college returned home with their degrees.
The figures were the basis by which Togiola requested the scholarship board to set aside more funds for ASCC scholarship recipients. According to him, one positive aspect of the increase is that more money will go towards ASCC for operations, as ASCC needs more revenues in order to operate. He said he will make sure there is enough revenue allocated for the scholarships to address the new increase.
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