Scholarships, internships and prizes of the Legislative Assembly

The Legislative Assembly has kept scholarships, internships and prizes going for decades that almost nobody knows exist. Act 198-2024 creates none of them: it creates the duty to announce them. Every July, the Office of Legislative Services must run a notice in a general-circulation newspaper listing them all, and the information on each scholarship and internship must be permanently on three websites: House, Senate and OSL. This guide tells you which ones they are, with the law that created each, so you know what to look for.

The duty to publish falls on the Office of Legislative Services, not on you: the July notice and the information on the three websites must be there for anyone, unconditionally. Each scholarship, internship or prize does have its own requirements, and those live in the law that created it and in the notice, not in Act 198-2024. What this Act’s statement of motives does describe, in one line per programme, is who each is aimed at: university students in Puerto Rico, students of Puerto Rican descent enrolled at universities in the United States, teachers and professors, certified teachers in active service at the Department of Education, third- or fourth-year university students in pedagogy programmes with a special-education specialty, fourth-year high-school students, doctoral students in Social Work, and graduates of accredited law schools. We did not read those laws, so we do not publish their concrete requirements.

• There is no requirement to read the notice: the Office of Legislative Services must publish it each July in a general-circulation newspaper.Verified against the official source
• The information on each scholarship and internship must be permanently available on the websites of the House of Representatives, the Senate and the Office of Legislative Services.Verified against the official source
• Each programme’s qualifying requirements appear in the notice, not in this Act: Article 3 requires that they be included.Verified against the official source

Information pending verification.

1. 1

   Step 1: Mark July on the calendar

   Article 2 leaves no margin: “The Office of Legislative Services shall publish during the month of July of each year, in a general-circulation newspaper, a notice of all scholarships, internships and prizes sponsored by the Legislative Assembly.” July is the month. If you are watching for one of these programmes, that is where the full annual call appears, deadlines included.

2. 2

   Step 2: What that notice must contain

   Article 3 sets the minimum content, and it is exactly what an applicant needs: “a description of the scholarship, internship or prize, the requirements to qualify, the procedure and the deadlines to apply, as well as any other information deemed pertinent for the public’s benefit.” If the notice you see carries no requirements or no deadline, it is missing what the Act commands. The same article clarifies that the cost of publication is borne by the Office of Legislative Services.

3. 3

   Step 3: If you missed July, the information stays online

   This is the part that helps you most out of season. Article 4 provides that “the information on each scholarship and internship must also be permanently available on the websites of the House of Representatives of Puerto Rico, the Senate of Puerto Rico and the Office of Legislative Services.” Permanently, and on all three. We do not give you each site’s exact address because the Act does not publish it and we do not guess government addresses; we tell you the duty exists and at which three bodies.

4. 4

   Step 4: The five internships, with their law

   The statement of motives names them one by one. Córdova y Fernós Congressional Internship Programme (Act 59-1993): outstanding students from universities in Puerto Rico work and study for an academic semester in Washington, DC, receiving credits. Jorge Alberto Ramos Comas Legislative Internship Programme (Act 184-1996): university students, combining the theoretical and practical elements of legislative processes and their interaction with the Executive and Judicial branches. Pilar Barbosa Education Internship Programme (Act 53-1997): Puerto Rican teachers and professors, in positions related to education but not confined to formal classroom teaching. Santiago Iglesias Pantín Labour Programme (Act 66-2005): federal congressional offices, federal agencies or labour-related organisations. Dr. Jaime Benítez Legislative Internship Programme (Act 195-2004): students of Puerto Rican descent residing and enrolled at universities located in the United States, to come to Puerto Rico and learn the legislative processes.

5. 5

   Step 5: The seven scholarships, with their law

   Raúl Juliá Theatre Arts Scholarship (Act 36-1996): to an outstanding student in the theatre arts who has also stood out in community service and wishes to pursue dramatic-arts studies. Dra. Antonia Pantoja Scholarship Programme (Act 97-2004): grants two (2) scholarships annually for doctoral studies in Social Work. House of Representatives Isamar Malaret Vélez Scholarship (Act 119-2007): graduate studies with a special-education specialty, aimed at certified teachers in active service at the Department of Education and at third- or fourth-year university students enrolled in a pedagogy programme with a special-education specialty, in Puerto Rico or the United States. Dr. Cruz A. Matos Scholarship (Act 157-2007): graduate studies in disciplines related to environmental protection and conservation. Ernesto Ramos Antonini Scholarship (Act 70-2015): financial support for talented, outstanding students in musical fields who are of scarce resources. Samuel R. Quiñones Senatorial Scholarship for Excellence in the Spanish Language (Act 332-2003) and Bilingual Youth Scholarship (Act 48-2008): both for fourth-year high-school students.

6. 6

   Step 6: And the two prizes

   Thurgood Marshall Prize (Act 9-1993): awarded annually at each accredited law school in Puerto Rico, to the outstanding graduate in civil liberties. Armando “Mandín” Rodríguez Prize (Act No. 81 of 31 August 1990): holds a press-photography contest. An important notice about everything in this guide: the names, the laws that created them and the one-line description come from the statement of motives of Act 198-2024. We did not read any of those fourteen laws, so we publish no concrete requirements, amounts or dates for any of them. That is exactly what the July notice and the three websites must give you.

Under this Act you do not apply to the Office of Legislative Services: OSL is the one that publishes. Each programme’s procedure appears in the July notice, which Article 3 requires be included, and the permanent information is on the websites of the House of Representatives, the Senate and OSL, under Article 4. The Act publishes no web addresses, telephones or forms, and we do not invent them.

• Believing Act 198-2024 creates the scholarships: it only requires publishing them; each programme was created by its own law.
• Looking for the call in any month: the newspaper notice runs during July of each year.
• Thinking that missing the newspaper means missing the information: it must be permanently on the House, Senate and OSL websites.
• Assuming they are only for university students: there are programmes for teachers, for fourth-year high-school students and for law graduates.
• Ruling them out because you live outside Puerto Rico: the Dr. Jaime Benítez Programme is aimed at students of Puerto Rican descent enrolled at universities in the United States.
• Expecting this Act to tell you how much each scholarship pays: it does not say, and we do not invent it.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Oficina de Servicios Legislativos de Puerto Rico (OSL)

  Servicios Legislativos

  bvirtualogp.pr.gov