Some 325 stu­dents at the St. Au­gus­tine Cam­pus of The Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies (The UWI) whose ter­tiary ed­u­ca­tion path may have been cut short be­cause of eco­nom­ic con­straints, will have their tu­ition and oth­er fi­nan­cial needs cov­ered for the cur­rent aca­d­e­m­ic year, fol­low­ing re­ceipt of schol­ar­ships and bur­saries from the Uni­ver­si­ty.

An of­fi­cial state­ment from the in­sti­tu­tion notes that “de­serv­ing stu­dents” were pre­sent­ed with the fi­nan­cial awards last Fri­day (April 11, 2025), dur­ing the an­nu­al Cam­pus Com­mit­tee for Un­der­grad­u­ate Awards (CCUA) Cer­e­mo­ny. The awards cov­er aca­d­e­m­ic year 2024/25.

“The schol­ar­ships and bur­saries were award­ed based on a range of cri­te­ria, pri­ma­ry among them, aca­d­e­m­ic mer­it and demon­strat­ed fi­nan­cial need,” the state­ment from The UWI ex­plained. “This dual ap­proach re­mains cen­tral to the CCUA’s mis­sion—re­ward­ing ex­cel­lence while help­ing stu­dents over­come eco­nom­ic bar­ri­ers to high­er ed­u­ca­tion.”

And The UWI’s CCUA is en­cour­ag­ing in­di­vid­u­als, alum­ni groups, cor­po­rate en­ti­ties and pro­fes­sion­al bod­ies to part­ner with its ini­tia­tive “to em­pow­er more stu­dents and open more doors.”

“The schol­ar­ships and bur­saries un­der the re­mit of the CCUA have be­come a vi­tal in­stru­ment for em­pow­er­ing stu­dents through ed­u­ca­tion,” The UWI points out.

The Scholarship donors and awardees at the Campus Committee for Undergraduate Awards (CCUA) Scholarship/Bursary Ceremony 2024/25, held in The UWI Daaga Auditorium on Friday 11 April 2025. [Image courtesy The UWI]

The UWI (St Augustine)

At the awards cer­e­mo­ny on April 11, first-year med­ical stu­dent Jerome Danglade shared how re­ceiv­ing a bur­sary re­shaped his aca­d­e­m­ic jour­ney and gave him re­newed hope. Danglade cred­it­ed the Fi­nan­cial Ad­vi­so­ry Ser­vices De­part­ment in a mov­ing ad­dress, as he paint­ed a vivid pic­ture of his per­son­al strug­gles.

“[They] “not on­ly as­sist with sound coun­selling and sup­port,” Danglade said, “but al­so hold and ground all vul­ner­a­ble stu­dents dur­ing their dark­est mo­ments and times of need.”

Rep­re­sent­ing one of the core donors, Man­ag­er of Lead­er­ship, Tal­ent and Cul­ture at the Na­tion­al En­er­gy Cor­po­ra­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go Lim­it­ed, Stacey Ram­samooj, un­der­scored the val­ue of giv­ing.

“At Na­tion­al En­er­gy, we un­der­stand that bur­saries are more than fi­nan­cial sup­port—they are en­ablers of fo­cus, growth, and op­por­tu­ni­ty. As donors, when we in­vest in stu­dents, we do not just fund ed­u­ca­tion,” Ram­samooj stat­ed. “We fund fu­tures, and in do­ing so, we in­vest in the fu­ture of our coun­try.”

And Pres­i­dent of the St. Joseph’s Con­vent Port-of-Spain Past Pupils’ As­so­ci­a­tion, Ef­fuah Al­leyne, point­ed to the last­ing im­pact of un­der­tak­ing such an in­vest­ment.

“The ‘pay it for­ward’ mod­el is one of the most pow­er­ful ways we pre­serve and ex­tend our lega­cy,” she ob­served. “Schol­ar­ships and bur­saries are more than fi­nan­cial as­sis­tance—they are acts of be­lief, of trust in the po­ten­tial of an­oth­er. They are bridges be­tween gen­er­a­tions, con­nect­ing the past with the fu­ture, en­sur­ing that knowl­edge, op­por­tu­ni­ty and val­ues are not just passed on, but lived out.”

The Scholarship donors at the Campus Committee for Undergraduate Awards (CCUA) Scholarship/Bursary Ceremony 2024/25 held in The UWI Daaga Auditorium on Friday 11 April 2025. [Image courtesy The UWI]

The UWI (St Augustine)

The Un­der­grad­u­ate Awards ini­tia­tive it­self is man­aged by an of­fi­cial­ly es­tab­lished UWI St. Au­gus­tine cam­pus com­mit­tee com­pris­ing mem­bers of The UWI com­mu­ni­ty, alum­ni and part­ners from across the busi­ness and pro­fes­sion­al sec­tors of Trinidad and To­ba­go, the re­gion and in­ter­na­tion­al­ly.

The Uni­ver­si­ty not­ed that this team works to “al­le­vi­ate fi­nan­cial hard­ship and pro­mote aca­d­e­m­ic ex­cel­lence, in­vest­ing not just in stu­dents, but in the na­tion’s fu­ture.”

“This trans­for­ma­tive ini­tia­tive would not be pos­si­ble with­out the gen­eros­i­ty of a com­mit­ted group of donors who con­tin­ue to in­vest in the na­tion’s fu­ture. From cor­po­rate part­ners and alum­ni to pro­fes­sion­al as­so­ci­a­tions and in­di­vid­u­als,” it added.

In­di­vid­u­als, alum­ni groups, cor­po­rate en­ti­ties and pro­fes­sion­al bod­ies in­ter­est­ed in part­ner­ing with The UWI’s CCUA on the Un­der­grad­u­ate Awards ini­tia­tive can ob­tain more in­for­ma­tion on be­com­ing a donor by con­tact­ing the Fi­nan­cial Ad­vi­so­ry Ser­vices team at (868) 662 2002 (Ext. 84185, 82360), or send­ing an email to UG­bur­saries@sta.uwi.edu

In ad­di­tion, stu­dents are en­cour­aged to ex­plore the wide range of schol­ar­ships and bur­saries avail­able from The UWI by vis­it­ing sta.uwi.edu/schol­ar­ships/ap­ply-now, where they can view the full list­ing of avail­able awards and sub­mit their ap­pli­ca­tions.