GECCU awards scholarships to primary school

Another group of parents have breathed a sigh of relief, as their children were awarded with General Employee Cooperative Credit Union (GECCU) scholarships for good performance in the recent Common Entrance Examination.{{more}} In an awards ceremony, which took place on Wednesday, 20 August, at the Methodist Church Hall, in Kingstown, seven students were presented with scholarships, whilst 92 others were awarded cash prizes to go towards the costs associated with attending Secondary School in the upcoming school year.

Of the 109 students who applied to GECCU for its coveted scholarships this year, 99 passed their examinations. In the end, four girls and three boys were selected – one of the girls being the Grenadines Special award recipient. The awardees are as follows: Allesandro Peters – Kingstown Preparatory, Ronald Trent – Kingstown Preparatory, Kori Providence – Windsor Primary, Tianna Homer – Marriaqua Government, Patrice Billingy – Georgetown Government, Harlee Richards – Sugar Mill Academy, and, the Grenadines recipient, Melanie Rose – Bequia Anglican. Whilst in Forms 1 – 3, these students will receive $1,400 per year and from Form 4 up until the end of Community College, they will be given $1,600 yearly.

Feature Speaker Dr. Nikeisha Lewis delivered an uplifting address that congratulated and encouraged the students to strive for the very best throughout their lives. A past GECCU scholarship holder, Lewis emphasised the theme of the awards ceremony – “Follow your dreams” – in her remarks. She appealed to students to allow their dreams to blossom and to “…be open to receiving guidance from those who have gone before.” Similarly, she pressed upon parents and guardians to be open to the dreams of their children.

In her opening remarks, Chairperson of the Scholarship Committee Marva Cato-Robinson congratulated all the students on their achievements and urged them to “Never consider the possibility of failure. As long as you persist, you will be successful.”

GECCU President Kenneth Douglas reflected Robinson’s message in his remarks and related that the organisation is dedicated to helping the youth advance in education, having thus far spent a whopping $135,000 in sponsorship of educational programmes to benefit youth. Douglas highlighted that since 1981, GECCU has assisted 129 students with scholarships, and that, this year, all the scholarships and cash prizes have amounted to a total of EC$9,200.

Alisa Alvis, Educational Psychologist in the Ministry of Education, was also on hand to deliver words of motivation to the students. Alvis spoke of the changes that students will go through now that they have advanced to Secondary School. She reminded them that the onus is now on them to embrace these changes as they will ultimately open up new opportunities to them. (JSV)