B.E.L. awards seven U.B. scholarships
The month before school starts is always a stressful time for parents and students, as they not only have to deal with the coming academic challenges but also the financial. Today one set of families found some welcome relief from those worries.
Marion Ali, Reporting
Seven students will have an opportunity to further their education at the University of Belize through scholarships provided by the Belize Electricity Limited. Mildred Larios will take up studies in Business Administration as of next week.
Mildred Larios, Scholarship Recipient
“I am very thankful and grateful to B.E.L. for having given me this opportunity to prove that I am capable of making them proud and not only them but my parents as well. What can I say, I’m happy about this.”
Yamani Rodriguez will pursue a degree in Information Technology.
Yamani Rodriguez, Scholarship Recipient
“I’ve actually been exposed to the field from when I was about ten years old, so I already know how the big world of computer science is and of course I have a great liking for it and that is why I enrolled into the course. I think that they will give me a solid foundation in the area; the Bachelor Degree courses will definitely help me a lot.”
In the previous six years, B.E.L. has sponsored fifty-four students through its scholarship programme. The investment, says B.E.L.’s Chief Executive Officer and President, Lynn Young, is a necessary one.
Lynn Young, C.E.O./President, B.E.L.
“We spend about thirty thousand dollars annually on the programme and we’re very pleased with it. I mean, the story you heard today is very touching, but there are a lot of touching stories because we focus on people who really need the financial assistance and have the grades and the character to succeed at that level, right.”
“We are planning to expand it now. We have always wanted to offer an engineering scholarship for a Bachelor’s in Engineering. B.E.L. relies a lot on engineers, at one point we had like eighteen engineers in the company and we still never seem to have enough engineers in the company, but there is, we think a shortage of engineers and we are going to be offering this Bachelor’s in Engineering. It’s going to be at the Memorial University of Newfoundland, which of course is where Fortis is from and we’ve been working with Fortis on this.”
Mildred Larios and Yamani Rodriguez join Mitylene Bailey, Ulyses Augustine, Vernonica Rivas, Kesha Peyrefitte, and Renita Pop who will begin their studies when U.B. opens this month. Marion Ali for News Five.
The value of the contemplated engineering scholarship is around forty thousand dollars.
