Reneal Scholarships: Part 1 [2018-12-31]
Reneal hit a major milestone in 2018 – we are celebrating the tenth year of the Reneal scholarship program! The program was born back in 2009 as we looked for new ways to help promising high school students in the Philippines achieve their dreams. What was striking was that it took so little money by US standards to make a huge difference in the lives of Filipino students. We are so grateful for our in-country partners who do the hard work of managing these two programs!
We couldn’t have started the scholarship program in the Philippines without the support of the United Church of Christ in our “home town” of Compostela. There are many challenging aspects to running a fair, trustworthy, and credible scholarship program: development of objective and performance-based criteria, unbiased selection of candidates, careful on-going management of funds, and close student monitoring. It takes a LOT of upfront effort and then weekly interaction to make this all happen. Reneal has truly been blessed to have the UCSAP committee at the church faithfully and carefully execute this program for ten years now. We started with ten high school students back in 2009, and since then we’ve grown to 20 scholars!
Students are chosen on the basis of academic promise and financial need. They must maintain a grade of 85 in all subjects each quarter, and their performance is closely monitored by the UCSAP committee. In recent years, students have been selected as incoming ninth grade students, where they already have established a track record of good performance. While there is no guarantee of on-going funding, to date the students that have met the criteria have retained their scholarship until they graduate from high school.
What costs do these scholarships in the Philippines cover? Here’s a basic breakdown of annual per student costs (in US dollars):
+ School supplies: $10
+ Allowance for school projects: $10 for Junior High students, $20 for Senior High students
+ School PTA miscellaneous fee: $11
+ School uniform: $10
+ Physical Education uniform: $8.50
That’s about $50 a year for Junior High students and $60 a year for Senior High students. On top of that, students receive an annual transportation allowance of about $100 although that amount can range up to $200 if a student lives far from school. The total budget for the 2018-2019 school year is about $3300 for the 20 Reneal scholars (5 ninth-grade students, 2 tenth grade students, 7 eleventh grade students, and 6 twelfth grade students), an average of $165 per student for an entire school year. That may not seem like much for an American student – some might spent that amount on a single outfit – but it opens new doors to students in the Philippines who can now complete their education.
In April of 2019, we’ll be saying congratulations and farewell to the six Grade 12 students as they graduate from high school. We are so grateful for the partnership with the UCSAP committee that makes this work possible!
In January of 2018, we began a similar scholarship program in Tanzania for high school boarding students. I’ll share some of the highlights of that program next week.
[Photos: The UCSAP Committee during the selection process for new scholars]