Boas overcomes struggles, wins scholarship

A YOUNG woman from Eastern Highlands, who happens to share the same name as one of Papua New Guinea’s leading rugby league players, was recently awarded a full scholarship to study a bachelor’s in accounting and finance degree at the Institute of Business Studies University (IBSU), a maid agency says.
Ase Boas, 21, who was raised by her grandparents in Port Moresby, was forced to find employment with PNG Maid, a maid
and babysitting service, despite securing a university spot after grade 12.
As part of her employment, she was assigned to work at the home of the Founder of Voices for Villages Foundation Incorporated, Vani Nades.
The foundation is the charity arm of Em Stret Holdings Ltd, focused on education.
PNG Maid founder Beverly Piawu said the news about the scholarship award was truly heartwarming and blessing for the work they did.
“We recruited Boas into our pool of maids because we saw her struggles and we wanted to help her,” she said.
“Little did we know that the help was going to be in the form of a full time scholarship to attain a degree in accounting and finance.”
Nades observed her commitment at work and discovered that Boas had a much more promising life than what she had gone through.
She completed grade 12 at Tokarara Secondary School in 2018, and was accepted to study at the Pacific Adventist University (PAU).
However, Boas was unable to pursue her studies at PAU due to financial constraints and she applied for work at PNG Maid in order to save money for her fees.
Nades decided to give Boas the opportunity to pursue her studies through the Sir Mick Nades scholarship programme.
She proposed to IBS founder Sir Mick that Em Stret Holdings would pay half the fees for Boas while the scholarship programme would meet the balance.
After receiving Boas’s full story and grade 12 transcripts, Sir Mick was pleased to award the young woman a full scholarship.
Boas will be given six weeks of catch-up classes through coaching starting in the second semester.