For the twenty second year in a row, Belize Telemedia Limited has given the opportunity to fourteen outstanding students who have qualified for full scholarships to attend the school of their choice. This year the BTL Scholarship Committee, comprising of a cross-section of company employees had the difficult task of selecting thirteen of the most deserving applicants from across the country and one student who was awarded a sixth form scholarships. Love News spoke to BTL’s Senior Public Relations Officer, Michael Augustus and Customer Service Manager, Doctor Dionne Miranda, more about the initiative.
MICHAEL AUGUSTUS, Senior PR Officer, BTL
“We sent out over two thousand five hundred application forms to school and we also had them at our district officers countrywide; students then filled the forms and sent them in with all the necessary requirements that were placed on the form. We received almost five hundred applications this year; the committee was then selected and the committee went through all the application forms and they were narrowed down to sixty applications; we invited those sixty in for an interview and we looked at their academic performance for standards four, five and six along with the PSE score along with their need; based on that the committee did the week of interview and came up with the fourteen students that we were looking for. It covers tuition, books and fees for four years of secondary school and this year we have a junior college student who was awarded one and we covered books, tuition and fees for two years.”
DR. DIONNE MIRANDA
“Unlike other scholarship programs, BTL believes in mentorship of the students. So, it’s not about just giving them money and paying bills. Michael has a close relationship where he talks to the children, he trains them and mentors them and parents ask for advice and help. Many of the students, who get scholarships from us, some of them come back and work for BTL; so, we are getting great employees. BTL doesn’t only want people to know that we do good, we want to feel that we do good as well and this is one of the ways to impact; you’re talking about the lives of the children. For every large graduating group means that there are more scholarships to give next year because we have to ensure that we have the funding available to keep this rolling each year. This year was a low graduating number but next year, every four years we have a bumper crop which means that we have greater opportunities available and once we have a student who continues to be at the level that we need and they need to go on and we find that they are not able to handle it financially, then we offer them the tertiary level; so, tertiary level is not a norm but it is something that we have to do because some of these children are amazing and we can’t leave them without taking them to the next level.”
In order to keep their scholarships, the recipients are required to pass every semester with a two point five grade point average or more.
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