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It was no easy task when it came to the selection process. The 14 students were selected out of 458 applicants.

Monica Bodden reporting
They are Belize's largest Telecommunications Company and every year, they give back to communities around the country. This year, through their annual scholarship program BTL added 14 more scholarships to their list this morning to some well deserved recipients.

Dr. Dionne Miranda - General Manager of Customer Services/ PR
"We are here today to celebrate 14 young people who have been successful in gaining BTL's scholarships and the reason I say 'celebrate' is because Michael, who is the project manager for this - this isn't a one day thing for him. So, basically today we're celebrating the people who choose the scholarships, we're celebrating some teachers and parents who are a part of the whole education system and we're also celebrating the fact that BTL has been doing this for many years and we now have hundreds of students who have actually graduated through our program. It's a celebration, we start off with awarding them their scholarship, brief word from the Minister and now we will now invite everybody to lunch following so that we can get to know each other a little better. Because unlike other scholarship programmes, BTL believes in mentorship of the student so it's not just about giving them money or paying bills. Michael has a close relationship where he talks to the kids, he trains them, mentor them and parents asking him for advice and help and he becomes a parent to them. This is the father of the BTL scholarship program."

It was no easy task when it came to the selection process. The 14 students were selected out of 458 applicants.

Michael Augustus - In charge of Scholarship Program
"We sent out over 2,500 application forms to schools, we also had all our district offices countrywide - students then filled the form, sent them in with all the necessary requirements that were placed on the form. We received just two shy of 500, the committee was then selected and the committee went through all the 500 applications forms which we narrowed down to 60. We invited those 60 students in for an interview, we looked at their academic performance from Standards 4, 5 & 6 along with the PSE as well - as well as their needs. Based on that the committee did a week of interview and came up with the 14 students that were most deserving based on what we were looking for."

Out of the 14 scholarships, 13 of them are High School Scholarships while one is a tertiary Scholarship. All students must meet a requirement during the time period.

Michael Augustus
"They need to maintain 5 points above for the High School students, or the Junior College they have to keep a GPA of 2.5 - they are not suppose to fail a year and they need to adhere to all the policies and rules of the institution of their choice."

Monica Bodden
"Can you speak to us about the scholarship - what does it cover?"

Michael Augustus
"It covers tuition, books and fees for four years on secondary school and we also have a college year student and we covered books and tuition and fees as well for two years of Junior College."

Guest speaker at this morning's event was Minister of Education, Patrick Faber – who congratulated the Belize Telemedia for their gesture throughout the years of highlighting the importance of an education.

Hon Patrick Faber - Minister of Education
"Some time ago when the PSE results came out we had a press conference and I made some remarks that of course stirred the population. In fact it stirred especially the Belize National Teachers' Union and my point in that press conference was simply that it is everybody's responsibility to fix what is wrong with education in our country and that it is not only the responsibility of the Minister or the Minstry of Education. I bring that back up this morning because this is a very good example of another element of the education sector doing its part in making sure that things go well with education. You may be wondering who I'm talking about? I'm talking about corportate citizenry and in this time and on this occassion I'm especially talking about one of the better corporate citizens, if not the best corporate citizen that Belize has - Belize Telemedia Limited."

The students all pledged to work hard and take advantage of this well deserved opportunity they received.

Izhai Carillo - Scholarship Recipient
"I'm so happy to be here and this is a great honor to be here and I will try all my effort to study hard and not waste this scholarship."

Monica Bodden
"In that moment that you received the scholarship from Telemedia - were you surprised?"

Izhai Carillo "I was surprised yes and excited. I feel so happy in that moment."

Phajja Gillett - Scholarship Recipient
"I'm just - all I can say is that I'm excited and I'm proud to have this scholarship and I will do all my best to keep it. My parents helped me out in doing everything - apparently I got it through."

Monica Bodden
"Which High School will you be attending?"

Phajja Gillett -
"Anglican Cathedral College."

Monica Bodden
'Are you excited for your first year of High School?"

Phajja Gillett

"Yes ma'm"

When we asked BTL's manager of Public Relations Dr. Dionne Miranada why the number of scholarships were just about halved, she said the company grants the scholarships based on how many spaces are available in the fund due to graduation. They keep 75 scholarships going at any given time based on a yearly investment of $155,000 dollars.