It all started with 5 scholars per municipality in 2018 and came up with 69 successful college graduates this year.

The scholarship program of the Nueva Vizcaya provincial government is now drawing 300 professional aspirants each year, taking up various courses  at the Nueva Vizcaya State University (NVSU).

Conceived with a purpose to help poor but deserving students, the SAGUT - an Iloko term which means gift, targets children of solo parents, displace Overseas Foreign Workers (OFWs), Rebel Returnees (RRs), Persons With Disabilities and those  orphaned, among others.

Dolly Rose Minas, acting public  employment service officer and SAGUT Scholarship Program – Provincial Screening Committee(PSC)  head secretariat,  said the grantees take agriculture courses, engineering, agro-forestry and education, among others  through the NVSU main campus here and its branch campus in Bambang town.

“It is an investment of the PLGU for our youth. Soon they will be the one who will take care of our province’s resources so that it will be passed on from one generation to another,” she said.

The provincial government has been funding the SAGUT Scholarship program with an P18.750 million budget to support its  maintenance,  operation and implementation.

From this fund, scholarship grantees receive monthly stipend amounting to P5,000 and P2,500 book and uniform allowance for every first semester in a year .

Minas said the SAGUT Scholarship Program has been approved as an ordinance in 2017 and institutionalized it  to help more poor but deserving students in the province and ensure its sustainability.

In turn, the grantees’ studies and performance  are strictly monitored by the Provincial Scholarship Committee (PSC) composed of practitioners and advocates of rural development for sustainability, such as the NVSU, Department of Education (DepEd), Sangguniang Panlalawigan (SP), provincial government and Liga ng mga Barangay-Nueva Vizcaya Chapter.

The PSC then conducts quarterly meetings among the grantees and committee members, home visits and various team building activities to help the grantees in their studies.

“We had a common struggle during the  two-year COVID-19 Pandemic as we adopted online classes/studies. We are happy that we succeeded in our struggles and came up with flying colors,” Minas said.

She said that last months’ graduation ceremonies at the NVSU highlighted the scholarship program with their 12 graduates recognized and honored as Cum Laude and 3 more as Magna Cum Laude in their respective courses.

Minas said more students have been enrolled with the program recently, pinning their hopes on the new batch of scholarship program grantees to finish their respective courses in time.

Before the SAGUT Scholarship program,  the provincial government opened-up its PAMANA Scholarship Program funded with P5.7 million which benefited 15 youths in the province.

With cash subsidy and laptop support, two graduates were honored for being  a Magna Cum Laude and Forestry License  Examination passer. (OTB/BME/PIA NVizcaya)