PR Community Foundation grants $50K to 10 Holberton School students
The Holberton Puerto Rico Scholarship Fund, established in the Puerto Rico Community Foundation (FCPR), awarded $50,000 in scholarships to 10 students studying at the Holberton Puerto Rico School of Computer Science.
This is the second round of scholarships granted to a large group of students who are expected to work in the areas of programming or coding. The first round of these scholarships was given in 2021 to five students for a total of $29,000.
The scholarships of between $2,000 to $6,000 each were awarded to two women and eight men and consider the applicant’s academic load and economic circumstance, the nonprofit stated.
“We’re extremely excited about this second delivery, since it’s possible after an arduous fundraising process to achieve our objective of facilitating the education of our students, particularly those in financial need and with outstanding academic characteristics,” said Mercedes Díaz, director of Holberton Puerto Rico.
“We’re also excited that the Puerto Rico Community Foundation is joining us for a fair and transparent selection process, to which also contributes its expertise,” she said.
Holberton School offers a program that is free of charge to students. Once they graduate, depending on their income, they pay back for their studies. The institution is betting that once students get their degrees, they will be able to find work immediately, due to a high demand in this type of profession in Puerto Rico, the US mainland, and other parts of the world.
However, the institution decided to establish the fund at the FCPR as it realized that some students could not handle the demands of working and studying at the same time, because the programs require a lot of time and dedication, school officials said.
The supplementary scholarship seeks to give students an opportunity so that they do not have to work full time and can complement their needs.
“We’re pleased to have been able to facilitate the administration of this scholarship fund, which joins other similar funds established in the FCPR, which have allowed the granting of more than 2,731 scholarships to students on the island,” said Mary Ann Gabino, the FCPR’s vice president of Development and Communications.
“This is in line with the Community Foundation’s mission and allows us not only to promote our island’s human capital, but also strengthen its productivity and financial capacity,” she said.
