8 Students From Princeton Community Housing Win $44K In Scholarships

PRINCETON, NJ — Eight students who live in Princeton Community Housing were awarded scholarships totaling $44,000 on Wednesday evening.

The scholarships were given by the National Affordable Housing Management Association (NAHMA) and the New Jersey Affordable Housing Management Association (JAHMA) Foundations, hosted at the Center for Modern Aging’s Nancy S. Klath Center for Lifelong Learning.

A celebration was held for the students on Wednesday.

The students join the over 160 students who have lived in PCH’s Princeton Community Village (PCV) and Griggs Farm communities over the past 17 consecutive years to receive scholarships.

They are eligible because PCV and Griggs Farm are affiliated properties of NAHMA and JAHMA.

The students who received the scholarship are:

1. Kelly Kapatsoulia, Kean University
2. Naomi Bazar, Mercer County Community College
3. Htway Min, Drew University
4. Enmanuel Guzman Zambrano, Rider University
5. Bianca Orostizaga, University of Hartford
6. Isaiah Nazario, College of New Jersey
7. Oliver Malkowski, College of New Jersey
8. Maiyin Hobgood, Rider University

In her opening remarks, longtime PCH Trustee and program emcee Sara Just highlighted that in total, just shy of a million dollars has been won by students residing at PCH properties.

Keynote speaker Monique Jones, Director of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging at Stuart Country Day School of the Sacred Heart, encouraged student recipients to celebrate their individual achievement and recognize that it was not done alone.

“I hope that you will take the lesson that your continued success is in partnership with others and working together behind a common purpose or goal,” Jones said.

“So that when it becomes your turn to do it for someone else, you will remember the essence of community. You will remember the power of We.”

Jones also noted that she was delighted to personally know many of the students from her time as the Director of Community Outreach with Princeton Public Schools several years ago.

Dr. Bruce Johnson, Administrator at JAHMA and NAHMA, then introduced the program’s scholarship winners with personal anecdotes and highlights of student’s accomplishments for each.

He said that since the JAHMA scholarship program began in 2002, it has provided just under $3.4 million dollars in awards to 760 students, and NAHMA has provided almost $1.4 million dollars.

In 2024, each NAHMA recipient received $3,500, and JAHMA recipients were eligible to receive up to $5,000 to pursue higher educational and vocational opportunities at accredited educational institutions.