Three persons were, this week, the recipients of university bursaries, awarded by the General Employees’ Co-operative Credit Union (GECCU) Ltd.

On Wednesday, as part of their 50th anniversary celebrations, GECCU awarded the bursaries to the tune of $10,000 each, to university students, Rickey Haynes, Natalie Glasgow and Jiwani Peters, in an effort to help offset some of their expenses.{{more}}

In brief remarks, president of the credit union Kelvin Pompey expressed happiness with the achievement of the institution in relation to education.

“At GECCU, we pride ourselves on being called the education credit union and our contribution to the development of the young minds of our nation is unrivalled with any other institution in the financial sector. We are proud of the partnership that we have with the State in its quest to increase the access to education at all levels of the education system,” Pompey said.

The president outlined the various funding facilities that are available to students and pointed out that GECCU has invested over $2 million in scholarships and bursaries to hundreds of students, as at June 2014.

Additionally, he urged recipients to study hard in order to achieve optimum results from their various programmes.

“Education not only allows you to achieve a higher standard of living, but more importantly, it facilitates an empowering of the mind which should lead to higher levels of independent thought and action,” he told recipients.

Of the three bursary recipients, two are pursuing studies at the University of the West Indies (UWI) Open Campus.

Deborah Dalrymple, head of the campus, delivered remarks at the short ceremony and thanked the credit union for their thoughtfulness and generosity.

“We have often invited credit unions to be a part of our orientation package and whenever they have presented their programmes to our students, I have been impressed with the way in which they reach out and simplify the processes,” Dalrymple said.

She assured the GECCU executives that they will not be disappointed with the performance of the Open Campus students.

According to senior education officer, Asfo Stephens, obtaining a university education was a rarity in the 1980s, and he recalled days of when only one national scholarship was available.

“It meant that dozens, even hundreds of brilliant boys and girls at the time were not accorded the opportunity for higher education,” he said.

In his remarks, Stephens applauded credit unions for making education a priority and giving persons from all social classes an opportunity at a university degree.

Bursary recipient Rickey Haynes thanked the credit union on behalf of all recipients and commended them for their generous contribution which ensures that students are not denied an opportunity to study because of financial difficulty.

“We value the efforts of an organization such as GECCU in providing resources and opportunities to students, allowing them to develop into competent individuals who are able to overcome challenges in today’s ever changing and competitive environment,” he said.

Dr Mineva Glasgow, chairperson of the scholarship committee and Cornelia Moses, operations officer, also delivered remarks at Wednesday’s short ceremony.(BK)