22 Students Awarded LUCELEC Scholarships

Twenty-two (22) students have been awarded the St. Lucia Electricity Services Limited (LUCELEC) scholarship for the upcoming academic year. Of the group, five are new entrants into LUCELEC’s Scholarship Programme.

The programme which began in 1985 is open to children of LUCELEC Employees and new entrants into the programme are accepted on the basis of their performance at the Common Entrance Examinations.  The scholarships are available for the students’ entire journey through secondary school – including the Sir Arthur Lewis Community College, providing they maintain a 70% average through each school year. The LUCELEC scholarship package covers all approved textbooks and supplies, tuition and facilities fees, CXC Examination fees and uniforms. The Company also provides each recipient with a school bag and notebooks.

The scholarship packages were presented to the students on Saturday, August 17, 2013, at the Company’s annual Scholarship Social under the theme, “Laying the Foundation for Success”. The feature address at the event was delivered by Jarnickae Wilson, who just completed his A Level exams receiving 4A Stars and one A in General Paper at the Cambridge International Exams. Wilson who was the 2011 Saint Mary’s College Student of the Year will be attending university in the coming months. He encouraged students to reach for greatness despite their geographical location in the world and to appreciate the value of each experience they have in their journey through secondary school.

“In truth the foundation of success and potentially your future happiness will be decided in the next few years of your life. Along the way you will discover who you are and be forced to make some decisions about who you will become. Making this journey and building this foundation is a task filled with challenges and obstacles. It is up to you whether to be an individual who allows failure to define and ruin your life or to become an individual who believes in working through failure and difficulty until the moment of victory,” he told the students.

Acting Managing Director Mr Victor Emmanuel also spoke to the scholarship recipients, encouraging them to let the power of positive thinking guide their success.

“There is power in our thoughts, in negative and in positive thinking.  But positive thinking gives positive energy that gives positive results which is what we call success,” he said.

Chairperson of the LUCELEC Scholarship Committee Miss Miguelle Warner gave an overview of the programme for the 2012/2013 academic year and reiterated the high premium that the company places on both good academic performance and behaviour.  In that regard, she was pleased to note that three students graduated out of the programme this year, one wrote her CXC exams and has since been accepted to the Sir Arthur Lewis Community College while another three exceeded the minimum requirement of 70% pass for each subject.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t all good news. Miss Warner says four students have been placed on academic probation due to below par performance and they have one year to get their grades back up or face elimination from the scholarship programme as happened to three students this year.

The Committee also noted a number of students had recorded behavioural and attitude to study problems and has been meeting with the students and parents to identify ways of getting these students back on track. A dramatic presentation by Ché Campeche focussed on the need to avoid such pitfalls as students navigated their way through school.

Three students who are entering Form One were also awarded bursaries of $500 during the ceremony which was held at Cul-de-Sac.