BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – PARENTS and guardians of eight students entering high school can be rest assured that financial help will follow them throughout those next few years when handling back to school expenses.
These eight students were, on Saturday (Aug. 27) awarded with the Warren C. Tyson Memorial Scholarships, a grant allowing them EC$750 each year compliments the TDC Group of Companies to be used to help defray costs which are sometimes a burden to some parents and guardians.
The lucky students are: Tian-J Williams of the Charlestown Secondary School, Melicia Clarke of Gingerland Secondary, Donielle Estridge of Basseterre High, Denaldo Huggins of Verchilds High, Kwame Challenger of Saddlers Secondary, Xyaniese Comrie of Cayon High, Telston Murraine of the Washington Archibald High School, and Jennica Versailles of the Charles E. Mills Secondary School.
The ceremony marked the 30th instalment of the Scholarship Programme, and it took place at the Training Room of the TDC Fort Street building, under the theme “Moulding Young Minds for the Future... Celebrating 30 years of Training, Development and Commitment”, which according to TDC’s Chairman, Mr. D. Michael Morton, aptly describes what TDC has been about these last thirty years.
Morton, while congratulating the awardees, emphasized that TDC believes “a large part of the solution to many of the problems which now plague our society is to invest in moulding the nation’s youth - the very persons who will have to make a difference in the years to come.”
“This programme allows each participant not only to access much needed financial assistance but to grow and develop through a work attachment element of the programme. These young students have an opportunity to rub shoulders with adults, to interact with the company’s customers and to learn from the company’s established employees. In this way they learn many of the skills which they will need to survive in the future,” Morton explained.
Sound words of advice were given to the Scholarship recipients by Jolene Francis who is a former scholarship awardee. They were given five points to help them along their high school journey.
1 - Apply the 10 000 hour rule - practice anything what you want to excel at for at least 10 000 hours. Thereafter you may be considered as an expert.
2 - Don’t ever think that you can make it alone.
3 - Disadvantages sometimes turn out to be our advantages.
4 - Embrace the legacy handed down to you (by your Warren C. Tyson (WCT) peers.
5 - Don’t lose sight of the chance you have been given
The TDC Warren Tyson Scholarship Programme, which was named after the first Chairman, Warren Cecil Tyson, was started in 1981. Each year, five students from St. Kitts and two from Nevis are recruited. Since its inception, approximately 194 students have gone through the programme with an excess of EC$750 000 being put towards bringing benefit to the nation’s youths.
