The Girls’ High School Young Leaders will now be representing this country at the Regional RBTT Young Leaders programme to decide the 2005 Most Outstanding School.

Up for grabs is a US$7,500 prize for which the top Young Leaders from Antigua and Barbuda, St. Lucia, St. Kitts, Grenada, Carriacou and Petit Martinique, Trinidad and Tobago and this country will compete. {{more}}This was announced at the awards ceremony held at the Peace Memorial Hall on Thursday, May 19.

The event saw two Young Leaders, -Amber Glasgow from the Girls’ High School and Keisean Stevenson of the St. Vincent Grammar School – hosting the proceedings, which were punctuated by cultural entertainment and speeches. But half an hour into the smooth flowing event, an electricity outage occurred causing the sound system and air conditioning unit in the already packed venue to cease. But, the youngsters, being true leaders, went on with the show despite the hiccup and carried on the event until the electricity returned.

This is the second consecutive time that the Girls’ High School has been

announced as champion of the local leg of the Young Leaders programme and president Cherylon Jack credited her team for their creativity. She revealed that their strategy to retain the title included visits to other Caribbean countries, notably the Sandy Point Secondary School in St.Lucia, where they had a student exchange. The President said her team was able to outshine the other schools because of the sponsored walks, food and cultural rally, radio interviews, and interviews with Prime Ministers from different Caribbean countries about Caribbean Unity. Jack said they always stuck to the theme of the project, “Strenghtening Caribbean Society; Our Vision, Our Culture Our People,” and because of that, members of the group leant more about the Caribbean Single Market and Economy CSME. She noted they also made a cloth quilt representing the various Caribbean countries and published a book on Caribbean Unity. Second place went to the Georgetown Secondary and third was the Bethel High School High. The debating champs are the St.Vincent Grammar School and second in the debate went to the St. Joseph’s Convent Kingstown. Young Leaders submitted 78 projects throughout the region.

The Girls’ High School received the Distinction Award along with $5,000 and each Student received a book voucher for EC$100, a certificate, a Young Leaders T-shirt, key ring and pen. Second place or the award of Excellence went to the Georgetown Secondary School and they received $3,000 and a book voucher of $EC75 along with other goodies, while the Award of Merit went to the Bethel High School and they received $2,000 and EC$50 and other trinkets. Each participant received a Special Certificate of participation and $5 in a Savings Account to encourage savings.

GeneralManager of RBTT, Desmond Austin described the Young Leaders programme as a means of enhancement. He noted that youngsters were given an avenue to discuss topical issues in the society, particularly through the debate, which introduced in 2003. “It gave students the opportunity to sharpen their oratory skills and to discuss issues such as HIV/AIDS, Globilisation and Caribbean Integration.”