Miss Pacific Islands Pageant (MPIP) PNG will also be sponsoring young women taking up agriculture this year.
In the past, the pageant only sponsored those taking up courses in the fields of health and education.
This news came with the announcement of the 2018 scholarship applications open for the year.
The pageant sponsors young women, in the hopes of empowering them for the future, through education.
Since 2011, the pageant has spent K684,000 to the end of 2017 for 246 young women throughout PNG institutes.
Last year alone, the pageant sponsored 56 young women.
“Our main source of funds is the staging of the pageant every year and the crowning ball at the end of the year,” said chairperson Molly O’Rourke.
O’Rourke said yearly, the pageant receives between 200-300 applications.
But preference is given to those applying from outside provinces, with priority areas now being education, health and agriculture.
Another scholarship – the Ruby Ann Laufa Award – is also open for a young woman who has completed a law degree and wants to continue Legal Training Institute (LTI) studies this year.
The scholarships covers only tuition fees and is offered to those in their second last or last year of college/university.
Application forms will be screened and successful applicants will be informed by email or phone.
Upon the show of transcripts and receipts, O’Rourke said the fees will be paid directly into the institution’s account and receipts forwarded.
“We have a budget. Once that amount is used up, we close the quota. We wish we could do more, but we are limited with funds,” she said.
The applications will close at 5pm on February 2, 2018.
Forms are available at mpippng401@gmail.com
(MPIP PNG chairperson, Molly O’Rourke, front, with the Miss Pacific Islands Pageant PNG Team in Nadi, Fiji, late last year – Picture: MPIP PNG FB page)