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A university dream comes true for three wards of the state
BY KIMONE THOMPSON Associate editor - features thompsonk@jamaicaobserver.com
Friday, May 24, 2013
DWAYNE Haynes, Orlanza Powell and Shallene Oliver had no idea how they would finance their university tuition come September.
On Wednesday, however, the three — all wards of the State — each received cheques from a New York-based charity in the value of US$4,000, enough to pay the year's.
COJO scholarship recipient Dwayne Haynes hugs Minister of Youth and Culture Lisa Hanna after accepting his award at the Spanish Court Hotel on Wednesday.
"I wasn't planning on applying to Students' Loan Bureau or anything, but I didn't know where (the tuition) was going to come from," Haynes told the Jamaica Observer after the presentation which took place at the Spanish Court Hotel in New Kingston.
Notification of the award, he said, had added significance because it came on May 6, the eve of his 19th birthday.
"Even though my birthday wasn't all that, the call made my birthday special," he said.
Haynes, head boy of St Jago High School in Spanish Town, St Catherine, will be starting the law programme at the University of the West Indies next academic year. He was previously housed at Maxfield Park Children's Home, but has, since age seven, been living with his grandfather, with supervision from the Child Development Agency (CDA). At 19 years old, Haynes has attained eight Caribbean Secondary Examination Certificate (CSEC) subjects and is now in upper sixth form pursuing advanced proficiency subjects.
For 23-year-old Powell, the scholarship means not having to spend his final year as a social work major at Northern Caribbean University as a working student.
"I won't have to work and will have time to get involved in school life and more time to study," he told the Observer.
For the past two semesters, he has been working full-time in the university cafeteria and doing course modules in the evenings. The year before that, he studied full time and worked part time. Thanks to the scholarship, however, Powell, plans to complete the course with full-time study over the next two semesters and at least one summer session.
He said tuition for the year now ending was $172,000 per semester, a total of $344,000 for the year.
Powell is a former resident of Muirton Boy's Home in Portland and holds eight CSEC subjects.
Oliver, the only female in the group, said her strategy since enrolling in the nursing programme at the International University College two years ago was to solicit sponsorship from various corporate bodies to supplement whatever she got from the Child Development Agency. Now that she is 19 he had to find a different approach, so the scholarship came in the knick of time.
She told the Observer that tuition for the current school year was in the region of $382,000 so the award amount of US$4,000 "should cover it for next year".
Oliver holds 10 CSEC subjects, seven of which were attained at Carron Hall High — where she was head girl — and the other three at St Mary Technical. Prior to IUC, she lived at the Pringle Home for Children.
The scholarships were awarded by Children of Jamaica Outreach (COJO) with funds raised at a benefit raffle earlier this year. The team is on a week-long visit to the island and included in its itinerary is the distribution of gears and other supplies to three children's homes in Montego Bay, Mandeville and Kingston. The funds for that were raised at a dinner in New York in December.
At the presentation on Wednesday, CEO of the CDA Carla Francis-Edie gushed with pride at the accomplishments of three of those under her care.
"It doesn't matter where you're from and it doesn't matter what your beginning is. What has happened is in the past is gone and that they have the power to dictate what they want for the future," she told the Observer.
That's the message she hopes children, particularly those in the care of the State, will take away from the proceedings.
"Our children are doing well. There are those who do better at skills, whether it's going to HEART or learning welding, but those doing external exams are doing well... Last year the minister (of youth and culture) honoured over 30 of our children who got between five and 11 subjects," she added.
Minister Lisa Hanna, who brought the keynote address, congratulated the students, saying they were an inspiration to her, and role models to their peers.
"As wards of the State you have proven that circumstances will not be allowed to limit your dreams and aspirations. You have already begun to actualise those dreams by pursuing tertiary level education to certify you as being among the brightest and best young people produced by our society. You are an inspiration to me as the minister with responsibility for youth and you are certainly fine role models for young people all across Jamaica and the world," she said.
"COJO's scholarship award to these three young people sends a clear message that we should be careful of the labels that we place on our children irrespective of their circumstances and their background. We still have a long way to go to get rid of the stigmatising and stereotyping of children in State care.
The afternoon function also served to honour two long-standing supporters
of COJO — former Prime Minister P J Patterson and J Wray and Nephew Ltd.
Mavis 'Pinky' Bowers received the award on behalf of Patterson who, along with a delegation that includes Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller, is away at the 50th anniversary summit of the Organisation of African Unity/African Union in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/...#ixzz2UCy6CxA7
A university dream comes true for three wards of the state
BY KIMONE THOMPSON Associate editor - features thompsonk@jamaicaobserver.com
Friday, May 24, 2013
DWAYNE Haynes, Orlanza Powell and Shallene Oliver had no idea how they would finance their university tuition come September.
On Wednesday, however, the three — all wards of the State — each received cheques from a New York-based charity in the value of US$4,000, enough to pay the year's.
COJO scholarship recipient Dwayne Haynes hugs Minister of Youth and Culture Lisa Hanna after accepting his award at the Spanish Court Hotel on Wednesday.
"I wasn't planning on applying to Students' Loan Bureau or anything, but I didn't know where (the tuition) was going to come from," Haynes told the Jamaica Observer after the presentation which took place at the Spanish Court Hotel in New Kingston.
Notification of the award, he said, had added significance because it came on May 6, the eve of his 19th birthday.
"Even though my birthday wasn't all that, the call made my birthday special," he said.
Haynes, head boy of St Jago High School in Spanish Town, St Catherine, will be starting the law programme at the University of the West Indies next academic year. He was previously housed at Maxfield Park Children's Home, but has, since age seven, been living with his grandfather, with supervision from the Child Development Agency (CDA). At 19 years old, Haynes has attained eight Caribbean Secondary Examination Certificate (CSEC) subjects and is now in upper sixth form pursuing advanced proficiency subjects.
For 23-year-old Powell, the scholarship means not having to spend his final year as a social work major at Northern Caribbean University as a working student.
"I won't have to work and will have time to get involved in school life and more time to study," he told the Observer.
For the past two semesters, he has been working full-time in the university cafeteria and doing course modules in the evenings. The year before that, he studied full time and worked part time. Thanks to the scholarship, however, Powell, plans to complete the course with full-time study over the next two semesters and at least one summer session.
He said tuition for the year now ending was $172,000 per semester, a total of $344,000 for the year.
Powell is a former resident of Muirton Boy's Home in Portland and holds eight CSEC subjects.
Oliver, the only female in the group, said her strategy since enrolling in the nursing programme at the International University College two years ago was to solicit sponsorship from various corporate bodies to supplement whatever she got from the Child Development Agency. Now that she is 19 he had to find a different approach, so the scholarship came in the knick of time.
She told the Observer that tuition for the current school year was in the region of $382,000 so the award amount of US$4,000 "should cover it for next year".
Oliver holds 10 CSEC subjects, seven of which were attained at Carron Hall High — where she was head girl — and the other three at St Mary Technical. Prior to IUC, she lived at the Pringle Home for Children.
The scholarships were awarded by Children of Jamaica Outreach (COJO) with funds raised at a benefit raffle earlier this year. The team is on a week-long visit to the island and included in its itinerary is the distribution of gears and other supplies to three children's homes in Montego Bay, Mandeville and Kingston. The funds for that were raised at a dinner in New York in December.
At the presentation on Wednesday, CEO of the CDA Carla Francis-Edie gushed with pride at the accomplishments of three of those under her care.
"It doesn't matter where you're from and it doesn't matter what your beginning is. What has happened is in the past is gone and that they have the power to dictate what they want for the future," she told the Observer.
That's the message she hopes children, particularly those in the care of the State, will take away from the proceedings.
"Our children are doing well. There are those who do better at skills, whether it's going to HEART or learning welding, but those doing external exams are doing well... Last year the minister (of youth and culture) honoured over 30 of our children who got between five and 11 subjects," she added.
Minister Lisa Hanna, who brought the keynote address, congratulated the students, saying they were an inspiration to her, and role models to their peers.
"As wards of the State you have proven that circumstances will not be allowed to limit your dreams and aspirations. You have already begun to actualise those dreams by pursuing tertiary level education to certify you as being among the brightest and best young people produced by our society. You are an inspiration to me as the minister with responsibility for youth and you are certainly fine role models for young people all across Jamaica and the world," she said.
"COJO's scholarship award to these three young people sends a clear message that we should be careful of the labels that we place on our children irrespective of their circumstances and their background. We still have a long way to go to get rid of the stigmatising and stereotyping of children in State care.
The afternoon function also served to honour two long-standing supporters
of COJO — former Prime Minister P J Patterson and J Wray and Nephew Ltd.
Mavis 'Pinky' Bowers received the award on behalf of Patterson who, along with a delegation that includes Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller, is away at the 50th anniversary summit of the Organisation of African Unity/African Union in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/...#ixzz2UCy6CxA7
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