UWI Students Get Scholarships From Canadian Organization

Seven students, four of whom are studying at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona, have been presented with scholarships totalling more than C$15,000 from a Canadian charitable organization. The Pride of Toronto, Chapter No. 12, with members mainly of Jamaican heritage, handed out the scholarships at its 25th Anniversary Dinner and Charitable Presentation held at the Rameses Shriners Auditorium in Toronto, Canada, recently.
Since its inception 25 years ago, the organization, headed by Jamaican-born Lloyd Seivright, who is a recent recipient of the Prime Minister’s Medal of Appreciation, has donated millions of dollars worth of medical supplies and equipment to dozens of organizations and countries around the world. The group administers the scholarships, which are sponsored by various groups and individuals.
Inga Dakota Smith and Vantario Taylor from the Bahamas; Dana Richardson from Antigua & Barbuda, and Derwin Christmas from St. Kitts/Nevis are all third-year medical students at the UWI. Their scholarships total C$10,500.
Miss Smith, the 15th recipient of the Harvey and Linda Gellman Scholarship, was in attendance to receive a cheque for C$3,000. The three others who could not attend, will receive their cheques at a later date.
Other scholarship recipients were Enping Tu who received the $2,000 Kay Baxter Memorial Scholarship, which is given to a third-year student of Computer Science attending the University of Toronto; Subarna Thirugnanam, a medical student at the University of Toronto, who received the first Arthur Fyles Medical Scholarship; and Gregory Dube, a Political Science student at York University in Toronto, who received the first Harvey and Linda Gellman Political Science Scholarship.
Guest speaker at the function, Jamaica’s High Commissioner to Canada, His Excellency Carl Marshall, extended on “behalf of the people and Government of Jamaica our profound gratitude” for the organization’s scholarship programme and for donating medical equipment and supplies, including wheelchairs, incubators and computers, to Jamaica over the years.
The High Commissioner said he was especially pleased that the scholarship in Computer Science, sponsored by the Toronto Sun, is given in memory of the late Kay Baxter, “one of Jamaica’s outstanding public servants”.
“She was the Consul General in Toronto and served in that office with excellence. She was later transferred to New York and served there with excellence. Our country continues to remember the sterling work that was done by this great servant,” he said.
Two of Mrs. Baxter’s sons, Neil and Jay, were on hand to congratulate the winner.
Lorrie Goldstein, Editor of the Toronto Sun, which sponsors the Kay Baxter Scholarship, said the recipients over the years have illustrated Jamaica’s motto, ‘Out of Many One People’. This year’s recipient, Enping Tu migrated from China, while previous awardees came from Russia, Canada and China.The Pride of Toronto handed out its first scholarship in 1989 and to date 31 medical scholarships have been donated to Caribbean students at the UWI. Jamaica has received 15; Barbados and Antigua, three each; Bahamas, Belize and Trinidad and Tobago, two each; while Dominica, St. Kitts/Nevis, St. Lucia and St. Vincent have each received one.
Pride of Toronto also presented to High Commissioner Marshall and Jamaica’s Consul General to Toronto, Vivia Betton, two wheelchairs destined for St. Ann’s Bay Hospital and Mona Rehabilitation Centre.