Belizean Students Awarded U.S Athletic Scholarships

Sixteen young Belizean football players were awarded scholarships to attend university in the United States. The combined value of the scholarships amount to over eight hundred thousand Belize dollars. Of the sixteen athletes, four were awarded scholarships to pursue their master’s degree, six were awarded scholarships to pursue their bachelor’s degree, and the remaining six were awarded scholarships to pursue their associate degrees. While most of the athletes received full scholarships, some of them received partial scholarships. To give additional support to those recipients of partial scholarships, the Ministry of Education has committed three hundred U.S dollars monthly starting January 2023. A scholarship award ceremony was held at the F.F.B. Headquarters in Belmopan this morning. We heard from a few of the recipients.

Donnel Arzu

Donnel Arzu, Student Athlete

“It is a great venture. The people here at the football federation started a new initiative in sending out student athletes that want to pursue their degrees in various subjects while playing sports. It is trough an American agent that they linked with in the U.S. and he got a school for each one of our student athletes.”

Govanne Ramos, Student Athlete

“I received a bachelor’s scholarship from North Western Ohio University, and I will be studying for two years in the Sports Management Department. I recently studied Business Management at SJCJC, and now that I want to venture in a different role, even coming back to Belize I want to help develop sports in Belize of just be something in sports.”

Jada Brown,

Jada Brown, Student Athlete

“I received an Athletic Scholarship at Campbellsville University in Kentucky. I will be studying Master of Management in Leadership. Feeling very excited, but first off blessed that I have the opportunity to pursue my education while still playing football.”

Sergio Chuc

Sergio Chuc, President, FFB

“It is very important to us to bring it across to the country because of the shared magnitude or shared amount of people going out. We have fifteen scholarships I think. No other sporting organization has ever issued that many scholarships in the history of Belize. I know in the past we have assisted several footballers, but individually this is the first time we have actually put a structured program in place and getting people full and partial scholarships.”