West Papua No. 1 News Portal | Jubi
Seven native Papuan youths flew to the United States to study after receiving scholarships from Papua provincial administration. The seven were admitted to Michigan State University, Western Michigan University, and Louisiana State University.
“The seven young people had received training and mentoring from us. Their grades are really good and they are ready to study in the United States,” said Fransisca Laij, the academic director at Jakarta International College, as quoted in the press released made available to Jubi on Sunday, March 7.
The seven are: Jessica Rumfaker, Michael Saroge, Paleria Waibusi, Raffaela Wanimbo, Ronaldo Krey, Steve Fonataba, and Yulandia Jufuway.
They got accepted in the three universities after showing a high academic achievement and a good English proficiency.
Read also: Budget regulation causes delay on Papuan scholarship scheme
“Our children got accepted in three best US universities and they hold so much potential. We are proud because they take majors that will be beneficial for the future of Papua. One of them take a petroleum engineering as the major,” she said.
Fransisca was present as one of the speakers in scholarship management training for civil servants working in Papua, held in Jakarta. She said Papua Land would be a region in Indonesia that would show the best of human resources.
Read also: A sad story of education from Papuan outreached and border areas
“I’m optimistic, Papua will have competent human resources because education and human resource development are priority programs. In 10 to 20 years, our children will master science and technology. I believe that,” Fransisca, who graduated from a US university, said.
Fransisca praised the provincial administration for the scholarship provision amid the pandemic.
Patricia Rubena, the director of recruitment and admissions at JIC, said another 38 students would be sent to the US this year. They would send 23 in April and 15 in August.
She said the trainees from JIC were all native Papuans that would study in the US, Europe, Australia and Asia.
“We nurture the students at JIC to match the need in the provincial administration. The main requirements are academic achievement, mental attitude, and the mastery of the necessary language,” she said. They could choose to apply to three universities anywhere in the world, she went on.
Earlier, Papua province regional secretary, Doren Warkerkwa, said the administration would send 47 students to the US in early January. Forty five among them would study undergraduate programs while two would take master’s degrees.
“They are all participants of Affirmative Program for Papuan High Achieving Students that have been prepared to pursue their education and those who had been accepted and began studying at US universities remotely in the past year,” he said.
The program is part of larger scholarship program organized by Papua administration using the Special Autonomy funds.
Reporter: Jean Bisay
Editor: Angela Flassy
