Scholarship recipients, mediocrity is not an option

As they prepare for the upcoming school year, three students have been awarded full five-year scholarships from the SVG Solidarity In Action Inc.{{more}}

The recipients of this year’s scholarships are Anise Charles, Raheem Richards and Vibert Parris.

While speaking at a small ceremony on Tuesday, deputy chair of the board Noel Jackson urged students to make use of the scholarship money by being consistent in school and always striving for success.

He told the scholarship recipients that mediocrity is not an option.

“Children, we ask you to ensure that the little money that we are spending on you, that you basically make us feel proud,” Jackson said.

“You must work to get what you want. We don’t believe in rewarding mediocrity. That too is not good for society.”

The deputy chair also encouraged parents to support and monitor their children in order to ensure that they are doing well at all times.

“I would like to wish the recipients of this year’s scholarships all the best. I ask you to ensure that you grasp this opportunity with both hands, because if you fail in any given year, the scholarship is going to be taken away from you until you pass again, because I don’t believe that we should reward poor performance. So, the parents are asked and ought to play a very important role in ensuring that the children study their lessons; that they basically check their homework, that they follow their progress in class, find out who their friends are if you see they are not doing too well, because they can be easily distracted and distractions can cause you to perform poorly,” he said.

Additionally, Jackson pointed out that this is the organization’s third year of giving out full scholarships.

He revealed that so far, approximately $10,000 has been invested in the scholarship programme.

“It’s going to climb because we’re going to have now to service about six full-fledged scholarships and it’s going to grow because we have decided to give two scholarships per annum and also to give out bursaries or book allowances to children who would have applied and were not successful in their application,” the deputy chair explained.

The scholarship is valued at $1,200.(BK)