Stephan Useche/BBC Managing Editor
This new school year, 16 new scholarships will be awarded to Biscayne Bay Campus students. Fifteen of these scholarships are $1,000 each, and one of them is of $6,000, making it a total of $21,000.
According to Jan L. Solomon, Development Officer for the office of the vice provost, there were 110 applicants, who will be narrowed down to a top 25 on Tuesday and later to the 16 students who will be awarded on Oct. 8.
At the ceremony, the students will have the opportunity to meet the sponsors of these scholarships, who compose The Vice Provost’s Council at BBC, launched July 1, 2012.
“These are people who take interest in our campus,” said Solomon, “Who enjoy engaging with the students and who understand our student body, which is hard working, needs scholarships, work and go to school.”
The Vice Provost Council at BBC has 32 members, who come from North Miami, Aventura and other cities nearby campus; mayors, commissioners, business owners, and philanthropists, among others compose this group.
The council has an executive committee of nine members, including the Bal Harbour Village Mayor Jean Rosenfield. This committee meets once a month, while the rest of the council is required to meet twice a year; but according to Solomon, many of them attend many of the University events, such as the Get Your Career in Gear event, where some of the members of the council talked about resume writing, job interviews and job-hunting tips.
‘Mentoring’ has been one of the primary goals of this council since it was launched, along with raising money and community outreach.
According to Solomon, this council wouldn’t have been formed if a vice provost wasn’t assigned.
“We had been waiting for that in BBC since 2006,” said Solomon. “We have not had a permanent vice provost since I’ve been here.”
Once the vice provost was assigned, two years ago, the scholarship committee started reaching out to the community and to those who had an affinity for the school.
The audit students from BBC were the key to accomplishing this, according to Solomon. These students take regular courses at the University, but receive no credit for it. In BBC’s case, these are city residents who have an appreciation for the classes and FIU, said Solomon.
“We started pulling from those people, like inviting them to meet the vice provost and to also help us form an advisory board,” said Solomon, who also said they were the connection to the community out there.
“Eventually, we got enough people and they started calling themselves The Vice Provost Council,” said Solomon.
In order for any person to be part of the council, it is required to contribute money towards the council’s fund and also to help raise money. This year, 15 of the scholarships come from that fund, and one of them, the $6,000 scholarship, is coming from one of the members, Jordan R. Laser who is the managing director of Laser Financial Group and Northwestern Mutual.
Next year, according to Solomon, the council expects to raise and give up to $100 thousand in scholarships to BBC students.
stephan.useche@fiusm.com
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