Stephon Nicholas

To­ba­go Cor­re­spon­dent

Unit­ed Na­tions Young Leader An­thuri­um Lewis, 17, stood out among her peers on Wednes­day at the an­nu­al To­ba­go Youth Awards at the Mag­dale­na Grand Beach and Golf Re­sort in Low­lands, To­ba­go.

Lewis, who at­tend­ed a UN High-Lev­el Fo­rum on Sus­tain­able De­vel­op­ment in New York last month, was recog­nised for ex­cel­lence in ed­u­ca­tion and youth ser­vice, and was lat­er named the 10-17 Youth Leader, tak­ing home an un­prece­dent­ed three awards on the evening.

Speak­ing to the me­dia af­ter­wards, Lewis said she lis­tened keen­ly to the fea­ture ad­dress of Chief Sec­re­tary Far­ley Au­gus­tine, who en­cour­aged youths to dream be­yond To­ba­go’s shores. Au­gus­tine had re­called telling then chief sec­re­tary Orville Lon­don that he was com­ing for his job, and urged youths on the night to chal­lenge him (Au­gus­tine) for To­ba­go’s pre­mier po­lit­i­cal post as well. Au­gus­tine said many in the room had the po­ten­tial to be em­ployed in­ter­na­tion­al­ly, but urged them not to for­get To­ba­go, as the is­land needs their voice and knowl­edge to move for­ward.

Ac­knowl­edg­ing the ob­sta­cles many To­bag­o­ni­ans face, Au­gus­tine said the is­land is of­ten ex­clud­ed if it takes a pas­sive ap­proach.

“It re­quires not knock­ing on the door, but kick­ing down the door to be in that room,” he said.

He said the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly (THA) has high hopes for its youths and is com­mit­ted to em­pow­er­ing young peo­ple through high-pro­file ap­point­ments and not to­kenism.

Mean­while, Sec­re­tary for Youth Em­pow­er­ment and Sport Keigon De­noon ad­vised the au­di­ence to al­ways strive for ex­cel­lence. He chal­lenged them to put in the hard work, which is es­sen­tial for them to reap their re­ward.

“Peo­ple will see the medals, but not the train­ing; peo­ple will see the qual­i­fi­ca­tions, but not the late-night study­ing,” he said.

He said the fiercest ad­ver­sary peo­ple face is usu­al­ly them­selves, as he im­plored them to guard re­li­gious­ly against com­pla­cen­cy and pro­cras­ti­na­tion.

To­ba­go Youth Awards

10-17: Ed­u­ca­tion - An­thuri­um Lewis

18-35: Ed­u­ca­tion - Joseph Wight

18-35: Health and Well­ness - Nathaniel Al­leyne

10-17: Youth Ser­vice - An­thuri­um Lewis

18-35: Youth Ser­vice - Omari Dou­glas

10-17: En­tre­pre­neur­ship - Jair Malia Hazel

18-35: En­tre­pre­neur­ship - Nathaniel Al­leyne

Youth in Me­dia - Re­na­co Wal­dron

Agri­cul­ture - Shenel Brath­waite

10-17: Per­form­ing Arts - Solomon Mar­tin

18-35: Per­form­ing Arts - Klavier Simp­son

Youth Tri­umph - Tin­isha Cu­pid

10-17: Youth Leader - An­thuri­um Lewis

18-35: Youth Leader - De­lano Joe­field

Youth Men­tor (Over-36) - Rheanne Moore

Most im­proved youth org - Char­lot­teville PYC

Most Ef­fec­tive Youth Pro­gramme - Youth Voice

Most Out­stand­ing Youth Or­gan­i­sa­tion - Char­lot­teville PYC

Peo­ple’s Choice - Har­mon SDA, Le­Bron Alexan­der