(Colonia, Yap) A dozen Micronesian students are headed to prestigious private schools this fall, thanks to Habele K-12 tuition scholarships. These students will attend the independent school of their family’s choosing.

Described as “an investment in human capital,” these grants are funded by donations from former Peace Corps Volunteers, tourists, and other Americans with a personal connection to Micronesia.

Local ownership and sustainability are emphasized throughout the scholarship process by incorporating competition, incentives, and publicity. Habele is an all-volunteer charity based in South Carolina, and relies on private contributions to fund its scholarship programs. Since 2006, Habele has provided nearly $75,000 in targeted tuition assistance for Micronesian students.

Many of the scholars’ families come from isolated islands and atolls spanning Yap and Chuck States. They have been awarded tuition assistance covering 50 to 100 percent of their 2017-18 tuition and fees. These students will attend independent K12 schools on the State Capital islands of Yap, Chuuk and Pohnpei that have among the highest completion rates, test scores, and post-secondary placements in the nation. Most students will be housed throughout the school year with relatives or host families.

The beautiful –and strategically located- islands of the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) struggle with isolation and limited natural resources. Comprised of many small islands, languages, and ethnic groups, the Federation was organized in 1986 as an independent republic in free association with the United States. US aid sustains an economy dominated by the public sector. Those bilateral payments are set to expire in 2023.

Habele’s funding is always focused on individual students, not districts or schools. Each year, applications out-pace scholarship awards by nearly ten-to-one. Other Habele efforts include sending thousands of boxes of donated books to public school libraries, providing equipment for school sports clubs and specialty equipment for innovative extracurricular programs.

Established by former Peace Corps volunteers, Habele’s singular mission is the advancement educational access and accomplishment in Micronesian communities. "For a decade now, ambitious Habele scholars have been making their families, teachers, and communities proud through incredible academic achievement," noted a Habele Director. "Extending ambitious students the opportunity to succeed is the simple part."

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The famously traditional Island of Stone Money is sending top students to a high tech global robotics competition.

Students from 153 nations will gather in Washington DC this summer for the international high school robotics Olympics. Few will have traveled as far –geographically or culturally– as the Robo League team from Yap.

The FIRST Global Challenge is a worldwide robotics competition. Small student teams design, build, and compete complex robots from simple parts. The work demands hands-on mastery of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) skills. Featuring teams from across the planet, it also serves as a forum for students to meet and partner with diverse international peers.

Students in Yap –a remote Micronesian Island most famous for its Stone Money– established their own Robotics League in 2011, holding Micronesia’s first public exhibition in summer of 2012.

Organized by US-based NGO “Habele,” the Yap Robo League remains the only coordinated multi-year robotics program in the Central or Western Pacific. It has grown and thrived through a defining partnership with a robotics team at Chaminade College Preparatory School, in Los Angeles, California. In-kind gifts of time and talent, as well as private donations and local fundraisers entirely finance the league.



The all-star team headed to the FIRST Global Challenge is comprised of three high school seniors from Yap Catholic High School, winners of the 2016 Habele Robo League Championship.  They will spend nearly a week in the US Capital, participating in a lavish international opening ceremony, a series of robotics exhibitions, competitions, and eliminations, as well as tours and team building exercises with students from around the world.

“Since 2011, hardworking students, educators, and community members have grown and sustained one the Pacific’s most exceptional –and most popular– educational programs,” observed Alex Sidles, a Habele Director. “Invitation to the Global Challenge is just the latest testimony to the accomplishments and ambitions of the Yap Robo League, and its innovative focus on competition, incentives, and accountability.”

The many tiny islands of Micronesia are home to a semi cash economy, primarily comprised of subsistence agriculture and fishing. Their remoteness and relative lack of resources limits formal economic growth and opportunities. However, they place great emphasis on preserving cultural practices while learning modern technology.

Widely studied in the West, Yapese stone money, or "Rai," are an example. The large, circular stone disks have been used for centuries as currency. The system relies on oral histories of ownership because the carved stones are too large to move.

One project to sustain traditional practices is “Waa’gey,” an after school cultural skills program. Many Yap Robo League students participate, receiving instruction on-campus and after-school from Waa’gey mentors in centuries old Carolinian carving and sailing techniques.

“There are many connections between the techniques of canoe building and celestial navigation and the skills students develop with these robots,” explained Master Navigator Larry Raigetal. “The outside world’s increasing focus on so-called STEM instruction is, for us, something of a return to the way we’ve always understand knowledge and building. I hope our young people take that insight with them to Washington.”

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Habele scholarship recipients in three Micronesian States are reporting their first quarter grades and have much to be proud of!

The students attend private primary and secondary schools in the FSM capitols through k-12 tuition scholarships awarded by the Habele Outer Island Education Fund.

"This is an exciting time and the hard work of these ambitious students is a source of great pride," explained Stephen Replogle, a Habele Director. "Investments in human capital are essential to growth and prosperity in Micronesia, a strategic US ally spanning the Western Pacific."

Since 2006, Habele has provided over $68,000 in tuition assistance for families, funding individual students, not districts or schools. It has also sent thousand of boxes of donated books for school libraries and provisioned after school and extracurricular programs with specialty tools and equipment

Established by former Peace Corps volunteers, Habele is a US based nonprofit, advancing educational access and accomplishment in Micronesian communities. In addition to tuition scholarships and student exchange programs, Habele supports innovative student mentorship programs, hands-on STEM instruction, and youth athletic leagues.

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Habele scholarship recipients in three Micronesian States are reporting their first quarter grades and have much to be proud of!

The students attend private primary and secondary schools in the FSM capitols through k-12 tuition scholarships awarded by the Habele Outer Island Education Fund.

"This is an exciting time and the hard work of these ambitious students is a source of great pride," explained Stephen Replogle, a Habele Director. "Investments in human capital are essential to growth and prosperity in Micronesia, a strategic US ally spanning the Western Pacific."

Since 2006, Habele has provided over $68,000 in tuition assistance for families, funding individual students, not districts or schools. It has also sent thousand of boxes of donated books for school libraries and provisioned after school and extracurricular programs with specialty tools and equipment

Established by former Peace Corps volunteers, Habele is a US based nonprofit, advancing educational access and accomplishment in Micronesian communities. In addition to tuition scholarships and student exchange programs, Habele supports innovative student mentorship programs, hands-on STEM instruction, and youth athletic leagues.

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Opinon column published in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser on Tuesday, May 31, 2016.

Communities on Hawaii and Guam are suffering. The flood of migrants from Freely Associated States (FAS) strains taxpayer-funded education, health, public safety and social services.

Every year, Hawaii taxpayers shoulder $100 million in costs for programs guaranteed under the terms of the Compacts of Free Association (COFA). On Guam, the cost is over $50 million. The amount sent from Washington to offset these expenses? Just 16 cents for every dollar spent.

Nearly half of FAS migrants in Hawaii draw public food assistance. On Guam, the number is 58 percent. In Hawaii, nearly a third also receive supplemental welfare payments. A third of FAS migrants on Guam reside in public housing, and the number in Hawaii is presumed even higher. About 5 percent of migrants on Guam and 12 percent in Hawaii, are homeless. Only small numbers maintain health insurance and participate in preventative care. The result is costly emergency room visits.

This could have been avoided. Since 1951, the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) has spent hundreds of millions in American tax dollars to advance social, political and economic development in Micronesia and the Marshalls.

The failure is startling. Leaving stagnant, semi-cash, local economies for better lives on Guam or Hawaii is no longer just a rational choice for many FAS migrants; it is virtually axiomatic.

In recent years, Interior’s Office of Insular Affairs (OIA) has reacted to its own blunders by further micromanaging the hundreds of millions in aid that it is obligated to provide.

In some cases, OIA has simply withheld the money. Predictably, this has fueled the exodus.

Rather than deal with the underlying problems it helped create, OIA is now training migrants to maximize their dependency on taxpayer-funded services in Guam and Hawaii. This disastrous policy includes awarding grants to so-called “One-Stop Centers.”

Caseworkers at these centers are trained to immediately sign up migrants for entitlements, equipping them to aggressively cash in on the vast number of benefits available.

One DOI-funded group goes further, organizing migrants to advocate for changing what they term “unjust laws and practices that affect Micronesians in areas of health care, housing, labor, and education services.”

Taxpayer money for these groups was cannibalized from a Technical Assistance fund intended to promote accountability, financial management and economic development within the FAS itself.

Bizarrely, OIA rejected a counterproposal to educate and train would-be migrants before they left the FAS. This alternative sought to reduce migration rates through peer-to-peer education, and cut down on taxpayer costs incurred by those who did choose to leave. It emphasized integration through cross-cultural training and civic engagement, mirroring training U.S. Peace Corps volunteers receive when headed to live in the FAS.

That proposal also included third-party evaluation and cost-benefit analysis, accountability evidently lacking in the One Stop Centers DOI chose to fund instead.

America has a long-term strategic interest in a friendly, functional and prosperous Micronesia (FSM) and Marshall Islands (RMI). Hawaii and Guam bear a disproportionate and uncompensated burden from this national responsibility. OIA is undermining its — and our nation’s — own goals.

Like a physician who ignores the underlying illness, OIA is prescribing costly, ineffective treatments, worsening both symptoms and the root causes.

FAS and American citizens alike deserve better. America needs to correct its important relationship with the FAS.

That requires expertise in development as well as foreign relations. Replacing bureaucrats from the Office of Insular Affairs with the seasoned and professional diplomats of the U.S. Department of State would be a smart first step.

Neil Mellen was a Peace Corps volunteer in Micronesia (Yap, 2002-05) and leads Habele, an all-volunteer nonprofit based in South Carolina, serving low-income and rural K-12 students within Micronesia.

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