Governor Kenneth Mapp signed into law a number of important measures before he left office on January 7. Among them is Bill No. 32-0328, which provides free college tuition for Virgin Islands students who plan on attending the University of the Virgin Islands. The program will start in Fall 2019. The bill secures $3 million from the Internal Revenue Matching Fund to the University of the Virgin Islands Scholarship Revolving Fund to keep the program operational.
The scholarship program has roughly nine qualification requirements, according to the governor:
- Applicant must be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident.
- A bonafide resident domiciled in the U.S. Virgin Islands at the time he or she files an application for admission to UVI.
- Have a combined family household per capita income not exceeding $35,000 per family member.
- Be a graduate of a U.S. Virgin Islands public, private or parochial school, adult continuing education program, or a certified homeschool program in the U.S. Virgin Islands. (If a high school student was displaced due to a natural disaster and gradated from a school outside the territory, who maintains their residency in the U.S. Virgin Islands, this student shall be eligible for the scholarship program.)
- The applicant must have applied for and completed a free application for federal student aid, and have accepted all available federal financial awards and all other means of financial aid and grants, except loans.
- An applicant must apply for full-time admission to UVI no later than February 1 of the calendar year in which the student wishes to enroll, and must make a deposit indicating intention to attend by May 1 of that year.
- Applicant must attend UVI on a full-time matriculated basis, meaning a minimum of twelve credit hours per semester.
- Applicant must remain in good academic standing based on existing academic rules at UVI, and must maintain a grade point average of not less than 2.0.
- Applicant must agree to provide not less than 100 hours of community service per semester in a nonprofit community organization, or in a department or agency within the Government of the Virgin Islands as determined by UVI through a work-study intern program or community service sites as determined by UVI.
The program must be used for students obtaining their first degree, which can be an associate’s or bachelor’s degree, or both, but only up to 122 credit hours, or, in exceptional cases, 132 credit hours, Mr. Mapp said. The scholarship recipeint shall matriculate (be enrolled) at UVI no later than the full semester one year after accepting the scholarship.