York Castle High student claims top spot in ICWI essay competition
SIXTEEN-YEAR-OLD YORK Castle High student T’Jean Shelly copped the top prize in the annual Insurance Company of the West Indies (ICWI) Group Foundation St Ann High School Essay Competition.
The announcement was made during an award ceremony at the York Castle High auditorium recently.
ICWI presented scholarships, grants, and prizes valued at over $500,000 to the York Castle High School and participating students of the eight schools and teachers.
The three-year-old essay competition had York Castle High reclaiming the overall top spot after the school was defeated by Brown’s Town High last year.
The other institutions that participated in the competition were Tacky High, Westwood High, Aabuthnott Gallimore High, Ferncourt High, St Hilda’s Diocesan High, and Marcus Garvey High schools.
Keisha Williamson, parent of T’Jean Shelly, copped the award for Top Parent, and Hillary Walker, senior teacher at the Westwood High School, was awarded Top Teacher after she signed off on the most essays submitted in the competition. The top three students from each of the eight participating schools received payments for up to six of their Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examinations.
An additional three students who did not enter the competition but were identified as needing financial assistance by their principals were presented with grants towards payments for their CSEC examinations.
The competition is the brainchild of Sandra Touzalin-Butler, ICWI Brown’s Town branch manager, who is also a former teacher.
INSURANCE AND TEENS
With two new schools added this year, the essay competition, which required students to write about the importance of general insurance, focused on an issue not particularly known to teens – insurance.
“ICWI is in the education capital of St Ann (Brown’s Town), and we wanted to engage the minds in our area. The students, through this opportunity, had the impetus to learn about insurance and sharpen their research skills. We also explored the needs of the students in St Mary and St Ann where tuition and examination fees were concerned,” explained Touzalin-Butler.
As the ICWI Group celebrates its 50th anniversary, the company has also endorsed the York Castle High’s Drivers’ Education Course and presented a cheque valued at $50,000 to enhance the programme. “Investing in our children has always been at the core of our foundation, and with this programme, we are investing in our future drivers as well,”Touzalin-Butler said.
The course was started under the Ministry of Education’s Career Advancement Programme by the sixth-form students. The programme was then adopted by two teachers from the school and transformed into the Drivers’ Education Club.
Vice-Principal at the York Castle High Antoinette Brown-Edwards was thankful for the gift received from ICWI toward the Drivers’ Education Course.