Former SVBLA scholarship holder’s message to awardees: Seize excellence

Franz George, a former holder of a secondary school scholarship from the St Vincent Building and Loan Association (SVBLA) who fell short of achieving first class honours at university by a mark of 0.05, has encouraged the 2023 SVBLA scholarship awardees not to squander their time the way he did and miss the mark to be exceptional.

Three students who were successful in the Caribbean Primary Exit Assessment (CPEA)– Drez Compton, Phoenix Boyez and Mya Samuel have been awarded scholarships by the SVBLA to assist them to complete their education at their respective secondary schools and at the St Vincent and the Grenadines Community College (SVGCC).

Franz George

Compton, Boyez and Samuel, along with past recipients of the SVBLA scholarship gathered at the institution on Wednesday, August 14 for the ceremony. However, the students did not leave the ceremony without a word from past scholarship recipient and organizational and business consultant Franz George who advised the students to stay focused on their goals as “Distractions don’t look like distractions until they finish distracting you.”

George told the students that when he first entered the University of the West Indies in Jamaica, he was bombarded with numerous clubs and societies that coaxed him to join and participate in all of their activities.

He said that though he wanted to achieve a high GPA at the school, he also wanted to experience all the fun the school had to offer, so he convinced himself that he could balance both his studies and all his activities.

“So it was so overwhelming for me, and I’ll be honest with you, there were quite a few things that were good that I said okay I would take up this, take up that, while I was trying to study and truth be told, they backed distractions.”

“Because when I look back at my performance in university, I did well, but one thing that stings me to this day was that I missed a first class honours, that’s like the highest award you can get, literally by 0.05,” he said, adding that his score was 3.55 but needed 3.6 to achieve the honours award.

George said the reason he fell short of the grade was because in one particular subject, he got a Grade B, and the reason he got the B was because, instead of giving more time to studies, he made time for activities such as clubbing.

“Now, that stings me to this day, so I don’t want that to happen to you,” he said as gave the awardees some pointers on how to avoid falling in the trap that he did.

George told the students to decide and have an understanding of what they want to achieve, write down all their tasks, determine which ones are most important, stick to a schedule that reflects the importance of those tasks, tackle the most intense and high effort tasks first, focus on one task at a time, acknowledge what you can realistically do.

Founder and Creative Director of the Kimya Glasgow brand, Kimya Glasgow who was also a featured speaker walked the awardees through some breathing exercises that may assist them during stressful times in school. She spoke of the importance of integrating creativity into one’s life and to how mindfulness can help curtail anxiety,

Presenting the certificates of scholarship to the awardees was Chief Executive Officer of SVBLA Elroy R John. The awardees will receive a yearly sum of EC$1200 during their form one to three years, and a yearly sum of $1400 from form 4 to the end of their second year at the community college.