Three boys awarded 2016 Clarence Keizer scholarships by SVG Port Authority

Three boys are the 2016 recipients of the Clarence Keizer Education Award.

Luke Nichols, Jorden Sayers and Shannon Clarke received their awards last Friday at an award ceremony and luncheon, held by the St Vincent and the Grenadines Port Authority.

Civil works supervisor at the SVG Port Authority Lenski Douglas presented the feature address in which he shared {{more}}with the awardees a few motivational thoughts on how to become successful academically.

“You do not have to be bright to place first in class or to obtain the best CXC results or even a national scholarship,” said the former national scholar.

“The smartest are not always the most successful, but the most successful individuals have grit. They persevere with a passion towards a long-term goal,” he added.

Douglas also said that success is accompanied by its fair share of failure.

“Along your academic pursuit, you must understand that success comes with its fair share of failure.”

To bring this point home, he included in his presentation a report card from the St Vincent Grammar School, which showed a fail grade he received for English Literature; an assignment he failed at the University of the West Indies and the Prime Minister’s award for academic excellence, which he received in 2004.

“Don’t let failure break you,” he encouraged.

“Put in the work now and position yourself so you do not have to curse yourself for the things that you never did when you should have done it.”

Also speaking at the ceremony was general secretary of the National Worker’s Movement (NWM) Noel Jackson, who said that the trade union’s 25-year-old social development programme has, over the years, focused on educational awards for the children of employees at the companies where workers are represented by the NWM.

He also highlighted the importance of having employees’ interests at heart.

“Once a worker knows that his interest is being satisfied by the institution in which they work, they will obviously be much more productive; so, it ought to be encouraged,” he said.

Jackson encouraged the awardees to discipline themselves and urged their parents to be firm with them.

“Parents, you have to be firm. I’m asking you to be firm with your children and take away some privileges that may be distracting to them, so that they can find more time to study.”(CA)