Scholarship grants are given to 80 underprivileged students in Pangasinan via the Lotte Scholarship Foundation (LSF) of Lotte Group, a charity based in South Korea. INQUIRER FILES
LINGAYEN, Pangasinan — Eighty students who belong to underprivileged families in Pangasinan will be given chances to pursue college education through the Lotte Scholarship Foundation (LSF) of Lotte Group, a charity based in South Korea.
The LSF represented by its chair, Haesun Chang, signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) here on Friday, March 8, with four government-run higher education institutions – Pangasinan Polytechnic College, Pangasinan State University, University of Eastern Pangasinan (UEP), and Binalatongan Community College (BCC).
The MOA signing for the program named Lotte Shin Kyuk-ho Scholarship (Outstanding Talent Scholarship in Southeast Asia), was witnessed by Governor Ramon Guico III, Vice Governor Mark Lambino, and other provincial officials.
Under the MOA, each of the 80 scholars will receive US$450 (P24,975) per semester for the courses of their choice, until they graduate.
It will be the institutions that will select the scholars based on their respective internal guidance. The schools will then report to the LSF on the operations and expenses incurred.
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Guico said Pangasinan was the first province in the Philippines selected as beneficiary of the LSF which has around 800 scholars in 30 universities in different countries like Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, and Pakistan.
Chang, through an interpreter, said in an interview Friday that scholarship for poor students is very important because education is the “base for everything.”
She said somebody from the province approached the LSF to consider Pangasinan for its scholarship program, and that the foundation checked the feasibility for offering it in the government-run schools.
Lambino said, in a separate interview, that the scholarship was not just about academic exchanges or scholarly collaborations, but about building bridges that span cultures, languages, and borders.