LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – Some two hundred ten college students from the province’s thirteen municipalities who are enrolled in the various private and public higher education institutions recently received P25,000 each cash assistance that was sourced out by Rep. Eric Yap from the Student Monetary Assistance for Recovery and Transition (SMART) grant program of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED).
Yap personally witnessed the release of the said cash assistance to the identified beneficiaries during recent simple turnover rites.
The SMART grant program is a one-time financial assistance to students in undergraduate programs. The grant will assist them in the completion of their education or attainment of their academic success as the world moves on from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The guidelines of the SMART grant program is enshrined under CHED Memorandum No. 8, series of 2023 pursuant to the pertinent provisions of Republic Act (RA) 7722 or the Higher Education Act of 1994 and by virtue of Commission en banc Resolution No. 547-2023 dated September 4, 2023.
Among the qualification requirements of the program’s beneficiaries are the applicants must be a Filipino citizen; with a combined household gross annual income not exceeding P400,000; enrolled in any curricular year level of his or her first undergraduate degree in any CHED-recognized bachelor’s degree programs offered by private higher education institutions or state universities and colleges, local universities and colleges with certificate of program compliance this first semester 2023-2024 and the applicant must not be a recipient or grantee or beneficiary of any national government funded scholarship or educational grant within the current school year except the Free Higher Education program.
For his part, Yap rallied the beneficiaries to wisely use the said grant properly and for them to always strive for success in their studies to be able to achieve their desired higher level of education that will make them productive and become major stakeholders in pump priming the local economy.
“Let no one put a limit on what you can achieve. At this time, nothing great is impossible to reach with proper support and right attitude,” Yap stressed.
The Lone District Representative assured the students and the people of the province that he will remain to be persistent and resourceful to make sure that his brand of service will not stop until his last day in office so that the concerned sectors will be able to be provided with the needed support to help in uplifting the living condition of the members of the marginalized and vulnerable sectors of the community.
He claimed that the people of the province will be ensured of equal access to basic services for them to be able to address their needs and that there will be no stopping him from working hard to guarantee that there will be no one who will be left behind.
The lawmaker wished the students the best of luck in their studies with the hope that they will be able to achieve their dreams and aspirations to become future professionals in their respective fields for them to become productive individuals to help in uplifting the living condition of their own families. By Dexter A. See
