RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

The chil­dren of a book­seller and a hard­ware work­er have achieved the high­est aca­d­e­m­ic ho­n­our in the coun­try, earn­ing Pres­i­dent’s Medals for their ex­cep­tion­al per­for­mance in the 2024 Caribbean Ad­vanced Pro­fi­cien­cy Ex­am­i­na­tions (CAPE).

Ted­dy Mo­hammed, a first-year med­ical stu­dent, and Ali­cia Dipchan, who hopes to study in­ter­na­tion­al busi­ness, cred­it­ed their suc­cess to hard work, sac­ri­fices, and the sup­port of their fam­i­lies.

Speak­ing about her jour­ney short­ly af­ter the an­nounce­ment, Dipchan said the award marked the cul­mi­na­tion of years of ded­i­ca­tion.

Raised by her grand­moth­er An­na, Dipchan said her pas­sion for sub­jects like Span­ish, French and Ge­og­ra­phy made study­ing an en­joy­able ex­pe­ri­ence.

“I didn’t see it as study­ing. It was about ex­plor­ing my pas­sion and div­ing deep­er in­to it aca­d­e­m­i­cal­ly. It nev­er felt like a bur­den,” she said.

Ex­press­ing joy at the help she re­ceived from her grand­moth­er, Dipchan said: “My grand­moth­er al­ways taught me to do my best, not to be bet­ter than any­one else but to give my best ef­fort.

“She made count­less sac­ri­fices to sup­port me, en­sur­ing I could pur­sue my ed­u­ca­tion. She was the one pick­ing me up and drop­ping me off in pri­ma­ry and sec­ondary school.”

She said her close-knit house­hold, which in­cludes her fa­ther Ri­car­do Dipchan, a hard­ware dri­ver, and her un­cles, dis­played the strong work eth­ic which in­spired her to suc­ceed.

“This schol­ar­ship opens op­por­tu­ni­ties I couldn’t have oth­er­wise imag­ined, es­pe­cial­ly for study­ing abroad where tu­ition costs are high,” she added.

Mo­hammed al­so praised his fam­i­ly for their sup­port and high­light­ed the im­por­tance of bal­ance, em­pha­sis­ing that aca­d­e­m­ic pur­suits should nev­er come at the ex­pense of men­tal or phys­i­cal well-be­ing.

“Study­ing is not easy and not every­one likes to study. It is not the eas­i­est thing to do when you can go out with your fam­i­ly or lime with your friends,” he said.

Mo­hammed said he wrote po­ems to de­stress, adding: “I do a lot of car­dio in the gym and I picked up swim­ming as well. I made time for fam­i­ly and friends to main­tain bal­ance.”

His fa­ther Ted­dy Mo­hammed Sr un­der­scored the im­por­tance of fam­i­ly love and uni­ty.

“We’ve al­ways been a sup­port­ive unit, and that en­cour­age­ment made all the dif­fer­ence,” he said.

Mo­hammed said he and his wife Deanne, who are in­volved in char­i­ty ini­tia­tives, im­part­ed strong val­ues to his chil­dren.

“God knows best and what we do, the chil­dren al­ways ben­e­fit. They got guid­ance from the good Lord and they achieved the best they could,” he said.

Mo­hammed said his daugh­ter Ameer­ah is al­so an ho­n­our stu­dent study­ing at Cave Hill in Bar­ba­dos.

Yes­ter­day, the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion an­nounced that 100 na­tion­al schol­ar­ships were award­ed this year, in­clud­ing 38 open schol­ar­ships and 62 ad­di­tion­al schol­ar­ships. (See full list be­low)

Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ters Dr Nyan Gads­by-Dol­ly and Lisa Mor­ris-Ju­lian com­mend­ed the schol­ars for their per­se­ver­ance and ded­i­ca­tion and ap­plaud­ed their fam­i­lies and schools for fos­ter­ing en­vi­ron­ments that en­cour­aged suc­cess.

Schol­ar­ship win­ners:

AS­JA Girls' Col­lege (San Fer­nan­do)

Avee­sha Ras­sul - Cre­ative - Open

Sha­rana Balka­ran - Busi­ness - Ad­di­tion­al

Am­era Manohar - Gen­er­al - Ad­di­tion­al

AS­JA Girls' High School (Char­lieville)

Safiyah Ali - En­vi­ro - Ad­di­tion­al

Bish­op Anstey & Trin­i­ty Col­lege East

Ke­lis­sa Pierre - En­vi­ro - Open

Lis­han Browne - En­vi­ro - Ad­di­tion­al

Shali­na Khan - Mod­ern -Ad­di­tion­al

Adara Phi­lan­ders - Mod­ern - Ad­di­tion­al

Bish­op Anstey High School

Donielle Hare­wood - Mod­ern - Open

Fa­ti­ma Col­lege

Dar­i­on Ramjit - Gen­er­al - Open

Chris Zheng - Busi­ness - Ad­di­tion­al

Hillview Col­lege

Ameer Ali - ICT - Open

Dha­tri Ma­haraj - Math­e­mat­ics - Open

Ted­dy Mo­hammed Jr - Nat Sci - Open

Reuel Niles - Cre­ative - Open

Arun Ram­nar­ine - Math­e­mat­ics - Open

Ariel­la Khan Ram­bal­ly - Mod­ern - Ad­di­tion­al

Is­han Per­saud - ICT - Ad­di­tion­al

Satesh Singh - Cre­ative - Ad­di­tion­al

Holy Faith Con­vent (Cou­va)

Rhean­na Chanans­ingh - Cre­ative - Ad­di­tion­al

Kathi­ra Out­im - Busi­ness - Ad­di­tion­al

Davina Sookram - Lan­guage - Ad­di­tion­al

Holy Faith Con­vent (Pe­nal)

Kaya Reg­is - Lan­guage - Open

Kha­dine Ram­bert - ICT - Ad­di­tion­al

Janae Tou­s­saint - ICT - Ad­di­tion­al

Holy Name Con­vent (PoS)

Chris­tiana-Li Miguel - Cre­ative - Ad­di­tion­al

Chaya Vin­cent - Mod­ern Ad­di­tion­al

Lak­sh­mi Girls' Hin­du Col­lege

San­dra Dulchan - Lan­guage - Ad­di­tion­al

Ri­ana Goop­tar - Mod­ern - Ad­di­tion­al

Rishelle Ram­goolam - Gen­er­al - Ad­di­tion­al

Amelia Ram­nar­ine - Gen­er­al - Ad­di­tion­al

Na­pari­ma Col­lege

Kaveer Bhag­wan­deen - En­vi­ro - Open

Khalon Man­swell - ICT - Open

Vi­nesh Ram­nar­ine - Math­e­mat­ics - Open

Troy Ram­per­sad - Math­e­mat­ics - Open

Kyle Ram­s­ingh - Gen­er­al - Open

Ai­dyn Hor­rell - Tech­ni­cal - Ad­di­tion­al

Rayshard Ho­sein - Nat Sci - Ad­di­tion­al

Savir Lab­ban - Tech­ni­cal - Ad­di­tion­al

Aiden Omar - Tech­ni­cal - Ad­di­tion­al

Na­pari­ma Girls' Col­lege

An­delle Bal­wah -Math­e­mat­ics - Open

Au­ro­ra Rack­al - ICT - Open

Kesh­ma Ram­per­sad - ICT - Open

Jay­da Mer­cer - ICT - Ad­di­tion­al

Mikah Stroude - Math­e­mat­ics - Ad­di­tion­al

Pre­sen­ta­tion Col­lege (Ch­agua­nas)

Adam Bisses­sar - Gen­er­al - Open

Nikhil Dilchan - ICT - Open

Kanye Hamil­ton - Cre­ative - Open

Mark Ma­hadeo - Nat Sci - Open

Phillip Ro­goo­bar - Tech­ni­cal - Open

Niko­lai Din­di­al - Tech­ni­cal - Ad­di­tion­al

Joshua Isa­hack - Cre­ative - Ad­di­tion­al

William Malzar - Nat Sci - Ad­di­tion­al

Ter­rell Nab­bie - Tech­ni­cal - Ad­di­tion­al

Ravesh Ram­phal - ICT - Ad­di­tion­al

Pre­sen­ta­tion Col­lege (San Fer­nan­do)

Ashish Mathu­ra - Nat Sci - Open

Adam Ra­moutar - Gen­er­al - Open

Aidan Batchans­ingh - Tech­ni­cal - Open

Joshua Is­sac - Math­e­mat­ics - Ad­di­tion­al

Chris­t­ian Ma­haraj -Tech­ni­cal - Ad­di­tion­al

Ranal­do Mo­hammed - Math­e­mat­ics - Ad­di­tion­al

Vishal Pooran - Math­e­mat­ics - Ad­di­tion­al

Jay­dan Ramkissoon - Gen­er­al - Ad­di­tion­al

Queen's Roy­al Col­lege

Jon­ah Bood­jar­rat - Nat Sci - Ad­di­tion­al

Jameel Castil­lo - Busi­ness - Ad­di­tion­al

Shi­va Boys' Hin­du Col­lege

Nashawn Brown - Cre­ative - Ad­di­tion­al

Dar­i­an Jagdeo - Gen­er­al - Ad­di­tion­al

Ri­car­do Jhilmit - Cre­ative - Ad­di­tion­al

Krys­ta Khan - Mod­ern - Ad­di­tion­al

Anan­da Ram­per­sad - Mod­ern - Ad­di­tion­al

Tama­ra Ram­sa­hai - Busi­ness - Ad­di­tion­al

St Au­gus­tine Girls' High School

Kait­lyn Miguel - Nat Sci - Open

Eliana So­man - Nat Sci - Open

Da­nia Clarke - Mod­ern - Ad­di­tion­al

Kar­ish­ma Khem­raj - Busi­ness - Ad­di­tion­al

Emi­ly Roop­nar­ine - Nat Sci -Ad­di­tion­al

Chris­ten Samuel - Nat Sc - Ad­di­tion­al

Ja­ni­ah Thomas - Lan­guage - Ad­di­tion­al

St Joseph's Con­vent (PoS)

Char­lotte Hadeed - Busi­ness - Open

Ju­lia Lee King -Lan­guage - Open

Vic­to­ria Af­fon­so -Busi­ness - Ad­di­tion­al

Xaria Beck­les - Mod­ern - Ad­di­tion­al

Pre­ston Chang Kit - Math­e­mat­ics - Ad­di­tion­al

Des­ti­nee Grif­fith - Math­e­mat­ics - Ad­di­tion­al

Sarah Woo Ling - En­vi­ro - Ad­di­tion­al

St Joseph's Con­vent (San Fer­nan­do)

Alex­ei Aqui - En­vi­ro - Open

Ali­cia Dipchan -Lan­guage - Open

Chelsea-Marie Scope - En­vi­ro - Open

Ce­leste Smith -Lan­guage - Open

Shar­nel Ali - En­vi­ro - Ad­di­tion­al

Ori­ana See­tal - Lan­guage - Ad­di­tion­al

St Joseph's Con­vent (St Joseph)

Saman­tha Khan - En­vi­ro - Open

Kay­la Lara - Lan­guage - Open

Chi­nara Bereaux - Lan­guage - Ad­di­tion­al

Kalea Cadette - En­vi­ro - Ad­di­tion­al

Makay­la Llewellyn - Busi­ness - Ad­di­tion­al

St Mary's Col­lege

Shel­don Year­wood - Busi­ness - Open

Joshua Pryce - Tech­ni­cal - Ad­di­tion­al

SWA­HA Hin­du Col­lege (San­gre Grande)

Kim­ber­ly Sama­roo - Cre­ative - Open

Vish­nu Boys' Hin­du Col­lege

Sharad Hatai - Gen­er­al - Open