GHS makes it four in a row

The Girls’ High School has copped the RBBT Young Leaders Award of Distinction for an astounding fourth consecutive time, beating nine other schools in the process.

The awards ceremony, which was held at the Peace Memorial Hall last Wednesday also saw Rebecca Hadaway of the Girls’ High School making history by being the first ever recipient of the Most Outstanding Young Leader award.{{more}}

Hadaway and President of the winning school’s Young Leaders’ group, Sophia Searles admitted that they were bombarded with many ideas from the 22 members making up their group, but they all kept their focus, worked together and were honored to have won.

Principal of the all girls school, Andrea Bowman was also ecstatic about the group’s achievement and said that she was particularly impressed with the Young Leaders this year who exhibited exceptional skills, despite the short time frame they had to complete the project.

Similar sentiments were echoed by Chief Judge Annelle Thomas who in her overview of the programme stated that the competition, which usually starts in September began instead in January because of activities such as the ICC cricket warm up matches and breaks during the school season.

Thomas said although there were 10 schools instead of the regular 19-22 schools participating, the students showed exceptional time management skills and improvement in their documentation among other things.

In his address Country Manager Isaac Solomon said that the Young Leader’s competition was the company’s “flagship outreach programme” and that this country’s projects were among the best in the region.

Coordinator of the event Roxanne Dalrymple highlighted that the programme was aimed at developing the skills of youngsters, helping them appreciate the value of teamwork in the pursuit of common goals, to foster care for their community and environment and to promote thrift towards strengthening the social, moral and economic well being of the community.

Featured speaker, Pastor Edison Augustus commended RBTT Bank on their theme “Realising Self-Worth…Your Choice…Your Destiny” and called on young people to have goals, to cultivate their gifts, dream and work towards them.

The man of the cloth said the country was seeing a rapid increase in crime and violence, easy access to weapons, drugs and a breakdown of morality and stressed the need for more mentors to guide youngsters. Pastor Augustus advised the Young Leaders to resist vices and become youths with a sense of purpose who would make sacrifices to succeed.

Second place or the Award of Excellence went to the St Joseph’s Convent Kingstown, while the Award of Merit or third place went to Bethel High School.

The Judges award for Most Improved School went to the Bethel High School and the Union Island Secondary School. A song was rendered by Kiokya Cruickshank a former Young Leader in remembrance of the late Patrice Bascombe who was also a past Young Leader.

The theme for next year is “Bridging the Gap – Building Relationships for a Better Tomorrow.”(SG)