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- Grants 10 new scholarships to West Kingston Students

The Scotiabank Jamaica Foundation will this year be granting $11,385,000 in Scotia Foundation Shining Star Scholarship to 26 new outstanding GSAT students to finance their education over their high school life. The scholarships will fund their tuition fees and other academic expenses as a reward for their excellent performance in the recent March examinations. These scholars will join another 102 existing scholars in the Scotia Foundation Scholars Club.

The island’s top boy Daniel Lawla from St. Richard’s Primary who scored 99.0% average and girls Kadian Farquarson and Anya Chuck who each scored 99.6% in the 2010 high school entry exams will be receiving the Scotia Excellence Awards. This is the highest award valuing $205,000 annually or each of them for the seven years. Daniel will now be attending Campion College, Kadian is looking forward to high school life at Immaculate Conception High while Anya will be attending Montego Bay High school.

The top three students from each county Felesha Roach from Bull Savannah Primary, Danielle Graham from St. Catherine Primary and Russell Gordon from St. Richard’s Primary will be receiving $172,000 each to finance five years of high school. Felesha will be attending Hampton High; Danielle will go to Campion College while Russell is looking forward to high school life at Campion too.

Commenting on the scholarships, Joylene Griffiths Irving, executive director of the Scotiabank Jamaica Foundation said that the Foundation was very proud of its new scholars and look forward to welcoming them to the fold. “We are pleased to be supporting some of the brightest young minds in Jamaica. Our scholarships are a great reward for all the hardwork that they have put into the exams. With the Scotiabank Shining Star scholarship we are signaling our vote of confidence in them to continue to do well over the rest of their academic life.”

Meanwhile the bank will be adding 10 new special scholarships dubbed the Scotia Foundation awards valuing $450,000 to students from inner-city schools in West Kingston. The schools which will receive the scholarship include Denham, Jones, Boys and Trench Town Primary Schools. While St. Anne’s, St Albans, Central Branch , Iris Gelley, Holy Family and Elleston Primary will compete the list. This will bring the number of inner-city scholarship recipients to twenty (20), as the Foundation usually awards 10 scholarships annually to high performers from various inner-city schools.

The Foundation has decided to grant these new scholarships to the students who went through the recent traumatic events in that section of the city over the past weeks. The ten new scholars will each get $45,000 annually over the next five years to pay tuition and other academic expenses. As part of the Scotiabank Scholars club they will also be incorporated in the bank’s mentoring programme which will place them with a mentor to guide them through the challenges of high school and teenage life.

Commenting on the scholarships, Joylene Griffiths Irving, executive director of the Scotiabank Jamaica Foundation said that the Foundation was inspired to introduce the new scholarships based on the traumatic events which unfolded and the need we know that will arise shortly when back to school preparations begin. “Many of these students lost parents and other breadwinners and we know that those who were left behind they will be find it very hard to finance these children’s education. These students have worked exceptionally hard and we want to encourage them to stay focused and help to give them the right motivation and environment to thrive.”

The Foundation has produced several outstanding scholars who have not just excelled locally but overseas where they have gone on to pursue higher learning. “Our initial set of scholars have done exceptionally for themselves, from the very beginning at high school straight through to university where many of them are now pursuing and some practicing medicine, law, sciences, engineering etc. While attending universities overseas they continue to do exceptionally well, as we have seen in the case of Melecia Wright who studied at Princeton and Locksly Wallace who is now at Kettering University. Our students who have stayed here in Jamaica to study at the University of the West Indies have also been straight a performers and are shaping up to be among the exceptional practitioners in their field.

The Scotiabank Jamaica Foundation Scholarship which was introduced in 1999 is in its 11th year and has assisted over 176 secondary school students with scholarship valuing $69,748,000 over the period. In addition to the GSAT scholarships, the Foundation also provides assistance to tertiary students currently studying at the University of the West Indies, University if Technology, the Montego Bay Community College and the Northern Caribbean University.