St. Thomas Scholar Keeps Winning

It has been quite the year for St. Thomas scholar Matthew-Rae Edmondson, who has been finding himself at the top of winners’ lists all year long.

In July, Matthew-Rae and his teammates from the Seaforth High School ICT Club won an all-expenses-paid trip to Brussels, Belgium, for copping first place in the European Union (EU)/Universal Service Fund (USF) short video competition.

Then in September, the 17-year-old found success yet again as he topped the Maritime Authority of Jamaica (MAJ) high-school photo competition.

For his winning picture, he received a cash prize of $200,000 and a brand-new laptop.

“It’s a very wonderful feeling knowing that I’m the first person in my community and school to win such a major competition. It gives me a sense of accomplishment,” Matthew-Rae, who is now attending the Caribbean Maritime University (CMU), tells JIS News.

For the photo competition, the MAJ challenged high schoolers to explore and document Jamaica’s dynamic maritime landscape by capturing the country’s maritime story through their lenses.

Matthew-Rae says it was his teacher, Mr. Terron Strachan, who brought the contest to his attention and encouraged him to enter.

The scene for the picture was the Lyssons Fishing Beach in St. Thomas where shots of different activities were taken using a cellphone. For the winning shot, Matthew-Rae said he had to get creative.

“It was a picture of a fisherman who went out to sea and he was coming back. I actually went out there with him. [The photo shows] how fishing… provides jobs for the residents and how it plays a major role in the entire community of Lyssons,” Matthew-Rae explains.

He says that he was “very surprised” when he was announced as the winner of the competition.

“When I heard about the other schools and hearing that I won from Seaforth High School, the little school from ‘round deh suh’, it was a wonderful feeling,” he recalls.

He points out that it was a similar feeling when he and his former schoolmates won the Belgium trip.

“The topic for that short video competition was how digital technology will impact secondary schools and produce digitally competent graduates. We created a video titled ‘Reimagining Education: The Virtual Reality Journey from Classroom to Career’, and we submitted that and then we won the competition,” the youngster tells JIS News.

This win moved the always smiling Matthew-Rae to tears.

“At the ceremony, when they said, ‘hailing from St. Thomas’… tears came to my eyes. Not everybody gets to go to Belgium,” he tells JIS News.

Matthew-Rae believes that rural youth do not have to be defined by their immediate spaces but can push themselves to achieve greatness. He tells JIS News that anything is possible with faith in God and hard work.

“We can create history. What students need to do is put their minds to what they want to achieve, have a lot of faith and just believe. Trust me, I went on some prayer and fasting for these competitions. You need to just keep your mind to it and God will work it out,” he says.