7 students have been awarded scholarships from the Belize Hotel Association.
All seven recipients have relatives employed at tourism-related companies that are part of the Association.
We got a chance to meet some of those candidates today, and here's what the President of the Association had to say at the award ceremony:
Reynaldo Malik - President, Belize Hotel Association
"At the BHA, we firmly believe in the role that education has to play in the development of both our industry and our country. We're also very mindful as an association of our corporate social responsibilities. The BHA's scholarship program is one of the ways that our association can embrace and fulfill both commitments, and therefore, we've gathered here this morning to award this year's successful applicants to the BHA's scholarship program. My congratulations to all the recipients and their families."
Kailie Eck - Scholarship Recipient
"My mom works at Tropic Air, and she told me about the scholarship opportunity. So, I applied in the hopes of getting it."
Jaiden Tuyul - Scholarship Recipient
"My mother works at BHS, which the company recently joined about two years ago. So, it made an opportunity for me, which it's just my mother and me. So, it helps her out. It made us more financially available."
Reynaldo Malik
"Right now, the coverage is tuition only. My dream, my hope, is that we're able to expand this into a full scholarship program, which is going to cover books as well, and at some point in time, again, depending on the contributions and support that we get from our members, I'm hoping to elevate into the tertiary level, and those people that will have to travel, that we'll cover lodging, etc. But that's a little bit further down the road."
"So, in order for somebody to be eligible, you just have to have a direct family member that's working at one of our member resorts. And then, you apply for consideration to the Association. We have a scholarship committee that receives all of those applications. They go through the applications; once everything matches up, there is a criterion - then you can become successfully awarded a scholarship."
As you heard, the scholarship currently covers tuition only, but the hope is that the program can be expanded to offer more financial support to the selected candidates.
