Vermont Fund Helps Students From Asia

The Freeman Foundation in Stowe, Vt., has donated $7.75-million to create a revolving loan pool to help Asian students studying at U.S. colleges and universities.

The Asian Students in America-Higher Education Loan Program will provide interest-free loans to 1,400 students from Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, and Thailand whose education has been jeopardized by plummeting currency values in their home countries.

About 77,000 students from those four countries in economic crisis are now studying in the United States. The loan fund will provide loans ranging from $2,000 to $5,000 during the next two years to 1,000 students nominated by their host campuses and to 400 students nominated by their countries’ governments. It will be administered by the Institute of International Education in New York, which is creating an electronic application procedure through its World-Wide Web site (http://www.iie.org/asiahelp) to help expedite the process.