UWI students get scholarship from Total Jamaica
UP TO three months ago, 20-year-old University of the West Indies (UWI) firstyear student, Shemar Findley, had no idea how he would have funded his studies in France for a year, starting September, after being accepted to attend the Bordeaux Institute of Political Studies.
Fluent in Spanish, French, Portuguese and “advanced in German, Italian and Korean”, Findley secured scholarships, which helped him to complete his first year at the Mona campus of UWI, but nowhere near the money needed to start the second of a five-year programme, leading to a master’s degree in political science and international cooperation.
Findley and 19-year-old Anatassia Balfour, as well as their grateful parents, last Tuesday let out collective sighs of relief when presented with €6,000-bursaries by Christopher Okonmah, managing director, Total Jamaica Limited, a French multinational company.
“I am extremely grateful. It has made the journey possible. I can go through the year with a sense of relief, concentrate on my course and getting good grades, instead of worrying about financial challenges that may come about,” said Findley, who, along with Balfour, departed the island last Friday for Bordeaux, France.
For Balfour, who described her household as being “a single-parent family consisting two sisters and a brother” residing in the Maxfield Avenue area of St Andrew, her mother, Lurline Gordon, repeatedly confirmed her gratitude.
“I am very grateful, I couldn’t afford that. I couldn’t manage that, no way at all. I am very grateful for what the company has done for her and other students,” she said, adding that though she will miss her daughter, the rewards will be great.
“I am gonna miss her, but it is for her own good. I know when she is finished, it will benefit the country, the family and other students, who she can in turn help,” Gordon pointed out.
Okonmah, who hosted the students at a send-off luncheon on Tuesday, where they were presented with their bursaries, said Total, a French multinational company, “takes delight in investing in the youth”.
“We make these investments anywhere we operate, not only in Jamaica. The youth, they are the future leaders of tomorrow,” adding that it was Total’s fifth year sponsoring Jamaican students at Sciences Po Bordeaux.
“Total is always engaging youngsters. We launched the Startupper programme in Jamaica, which is a competition for young entrepreneurs, where we select the best three innovative ideas and give them money, mentorship and coaching to achieve their dreams of becoming entrepreneurs,” said Okonmah.
“We will also soon deploy the Young Graduate programme in which we take young college and university graduates through an 18-month programme in the local affiliate and any of our other affiliates in the Americas, where they will acquire skills to prepare them for the future. It is our way of building capacity in our youth,” he added.
‘I can go through the year with a sense of relief, concentrate on my course and getting good grades instead of worrying about financial challenges that may come about.’