SVGS valedictorian takes home 14 awards

The Class of 2017 of the St Vincent Grammar School (SVGS) has been tasked with shaping the future through positive action.

In his address at the school’s graduation ceremony on June 28, valedictorian Shane Cadogan encouraged his classmates to look forward to the future.

“To my fellow graduates and friends – when you leave here today, celebrate what you have accomplished, but look forward with eager eyes to see how we can be an inspiration to others and how we can shape the future through positive action.”

Cadogan, who was also headboy of the 2016/2017 school year, said more than anything else, one of the first lessons he learned as a student of the school was the power of working together. 

“Perhaps more than anything else, the first lesson we learned was that, as separate individuals, we are, at most, mildly effective, but together, we can combine our talents into a powerful arsenal of educational excellence.” 

He thanked God, his headmasters, teachers and others for their various roles in bringing them to the point of graduation. But he reserved special praise for the relatives and friends of the graduates.

“Parents, guardians, grandparents, siblings, other relatives and friends, when I started counting how much we are blessed by having you all in our world, my whole life turned around, Thank you soooo very much for believing in us. 

“I have seen in my years at the St Vincent Grammar School that we do not have to look far for inspiration and that we each have the potential to make an inspiring contribution to our world.”

In addition to being the valedictorian, Cadogan was the recipient of an amazing 14 awards at the ceremony, which was held at the Kingstown Methodist Church. He received the Luke Browne Award for the Most Outstanding Modern Language Student; the Raj Services Award for Outstanding Science Student; the Andrew Cummings Award for the Student Who Best Balances Sports with Academics; the SVGS Young Leaders/SOL EC Most Outstanding Student Award for Form 5; an award for outstanding contribution to Young Leaders 2016; the Marcus Cain Award for Additional Mathematics; the Blue Horizon Clinic Award for Biology; the Caribbean Reference Lab Ltd Award for Chemistry; the Jeanette France Award for English A; the Jeanette France Award for English B; the Brian DaSilva Award for Geography; the Desiree Richards Award for Information Technology; the Ray DeFreitas Award for Physics; and the Joel Providence Award for Spanish.

In his address, headmaster Curtis King cited staff absenteeism as one of the school’s major challenges during this school year. “The frequency with which some teachers submitted sick leave and called in to indicate their absence due to ill health was more than cause for concern, with regard to loss of instructional time. We once again call on those in authority to examine these issues with a view to reducing the frequency of these occurrences.”

King also said the lack of focus and discipline of many of the students is worrying.

“Too much time had to be spent on resolving conflicts among students and dealing with the violation of school rules by some students. Further to this, we were challenged by the negative values seeping in from the broader society, which some of our students have embraced. These include a lack of respect for other persons and their property, along with violent and lewd behaviour, as well as disregard for proper dress codes.”

The feature address was delivered by executive director of the National Insurance Services Stewart Haynes, while Dr Adrian Fraser, a past student and teacher, was named the 2017 honouree of the school.