By SHAMAOMA  MUSONDA –
SEVEN Zambian students have been granted university scholarships in the United States of America (USA) under the auspice of the Worldwide Scholarship Zambia.
Worldwide scholarships Group Managing Director for Scholarships, Dorine Maraire said in an interview in Lusaka yesterday that the seven were picked after strict scrutiny and were selected after showing impressive academic grades.
She said her organisation had been looking at various applications from Zambian students seeking scholarships outside the country and managed to secure places at universities in the USA for the group.
“We have been in Zambia for just under two years and in this period we have been talking to various schools and their students and we are happy that finally, we have managed to get the first batch of students out to the USA.
“We are still looking at many students’ and applications and we shall continue to offer these scholarships all over the world,” Dr Maraire said.
She said her organisation offers various levels of scholarships ranging from 25 per cent to 100 per cent stating that one of the students that had left from Zambia had left on a 50 per cent scholarship to Mid-Western State University.
The seven students who left are Elizabeth Rumsey from Lusaka International Community School (LICS) who has gone to Mid-Western State University to study medicine and described the opportunity as a dream come true.
Rumsey is joined at Mid-Western State University by Carol Nanyangwe also studying medicine and Neria Nanyangwe for Nursing.
Others are Mulando Njeleka, Simon Adhanom for International Business, Milimo Hamane (medicine) and Dennis Scjonoro-Mareya to study Finance.
Isaac Sinyangwe, father of Carol and Neria, expressed happiness at having his daughters getting into a university in the USA.
Dr Maraire said apart from just academics, her organisation which has been in existence for 12 years was also looking at students with other skills like sports and leadership or a combination of two or all three of them.
She said there could be another set of students who could be going in January next year adding that Zambian students are eager access such opportunities and succeed.
She said Worldwide Scholarships would continue to scout sporting talent and link them to universities across the world as they have done to various students across the world in countries they have operated before which include South Africa.
She said her institution had links to international learning institutions in the USA, United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, China, Singapore, Malaysia as well as Ukraine.
Worldwide scholarships Zambia which is on the second floor of Elunda-2 in Lusaka also offers scholarships to the Ivy League.