Vincentian resident awarded grant for airline pilot studies

Many young people dream of learning to fly and becoming pilots, but St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) resident Rishi Prikrishna Ramsamooj has begun on the path to turn such dream into a reality.

Prikrishna, a graduate of St Vincent and the Grenadines Community College, enrolled this past year in the Epic Flight Academy in Florida and has been studying to earn his private pilot’s licence.

He has now been awarded a Hunter Watson Memorial Fund Grant, locally known as the Friends of Hunter Watson Fund Grant, to assist him on his road to a full commercial pilot’s licence.

Prikrishna views getting a commercial pilot’s licence not just as a means for obtaining employment in his chosen field, but also as a way to give something back to his home country of SVG. His goal, once he has his commercial licence and sufficient experience, is to begin flying for an airline within SVG.

With the addition of the recently built international airport, there is increased opportunity and need for commercial pilots. He has also expressed an interest in working with and guiding young people who also have an interest in becoming pilots.

The grant award is being made by the Hunter Brooks Watson Memorial Fund, a non-profit fund established by friends and colleagues in memory of Hunter Watson, who died tragically as a passenger in an automobile accident in the summer of 2016.

Prikrishna is currently residing in Florida as he attends flight school, but graduated from St Vincent and the Grenadines Community College with majors in math, physics and computer science. He is also a graduate of St Vincent Boys’ Grammar School.