26 Belizeans Receive Scholarships from Taiwan

Over two hundred and thirty Belizeans have had an opportunity to study in Taiwan in past years. Some twenty plus students are selected annually from numerous applications as the lucky recipients of scholarships under the International Cooperation Development Fund of Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This year, a record number of twenty-six students from across the country received their scholarship packages courtesy of the Taiwanese Embassy and will join the over one hundred Belizeans currently studying in universities in that country. The award ceremony was held over the weekend in the presence of government officials as well as family and friends of the awardees. Duane Moody reports.

Duane Moody, Reporting

On Saturday at Chateau Caribbean, the Taiwanese Embassy held its official awards ceremony to send off the successful individuals for its scholarship program. Families and friends joined in the celebration as twenty-six students—five for the MOFA scholarship and twenty-one for the ICDF—will join the over one hundred Belizeans currently studying in university within that country. Taiwanese Ambassador to Belize, Benjamin Ho, says the recipients were chosen from over two hundred applicants.

Benjamin Ho

Benjamin Ho, Ambassador, Republic of China (Taiwan)

“So they are the best of the best. So I want to take this opportunity to congratulate you for a wonderful job. I think the school years that you have been done in the past, you are tremendous. Your wonderful academic performance deserves this award and this honor. You are a pride to your family, you are teachers to your school, so I congratulate you again on behalf of my embassy, my people and my staff.”

Wilfred Elrington

Wilfred Elrington, Foreign Affairs Minister

“Let me tell you students and your parents and all of us who are Belizeans…we are a lucky people. We must know that we are lucky because if we are not lucky and we do not look after Belize by developing it, make sure that it is safe, make sure that it is solvent economically; we are going to lose it.  So when you go off to study, bear that in mind. You go off as emissaries of Belize to acquire greater skills and knowledge to come back to develop and enhance Belize.”

The lucky recipients will embark on a journey that will change their lives forever. In both bachelors and masters programs, they will attend various universities in Taiwan to acquire degrees that will allow them to return to Belize and apply the knowledge learnt. Emotional and overwhelmed by what they have accomplished, the students spoke of the journey to get to this point.

Clydie Aldana, MOFA Scholarship Recipient

Clydie Aldana

“I feel really blessed and when it came to the opportunity, I didn’t know if I wanted to take it. But after praying a lot, I am really excited and happy to be part of this MOFA Scholarship. It is a little bit scary because I’m going as only nineteen years old and I have to be independent there. I won’t have as much help as the ICDF, but I look forward to this new experience. I am very happy and overwhelmed; basically like nervousness and I am a little scared and sad to leave my family alone, especially my little brother. He is just seven and always crying saying not to go, but it is for the better; it is for my future and that’s what I am aiming for. I want to become a neurologist so I want to come back. I definitely want to come back to Belize. I have many people on my list that I want to help.”

Albert Melendez

Albert Melendez, ICDF Scholarship Recipient

“I feel privilege to go out there and try to better off myself, develop myself in order to also help develop the country of Belize. I have the opportunity now to do my masters in International Development Sustainable Development. It’s a two years program and it is English-taught. I feel that it is a field on demand right now for our country with climate change being a factor and we are a developing country hence we need to develop sustainably in order to preserve our resources for the future generation.”

David Leacock also addressed the group on behalf of the Ministry of Education. He says that approximately twenty thousand US dollars per year is being invested per student in the scholarship program.

David Leacock, C.E.O., Ministry of Education

David Leacock

“We want you to apply yourself so that Belize can achieve. And so the journey across the pacific will be nothing like the journey and the experience that you will begin once you arrive in Taiwan and go to your respective universities for study. Ostensibly, you will be going to Taiwan to study in the academic sense, but if your experience is limited to the academic, if all you acquire is academic learning and an academic degree, a piece of paper then you will not have maximized the investment that is being made in you through the cooperation of the governments of Belize and Taiwan.”

Duane Moody for News Five.