Tertiary track scholarships for inner-city youths

Twenty students from inner-city communities across the island have earned scholarships from the International University of the Caribbean (IUC) under its Tertiary Tracks programme.

At the fourth annual awards ceremony held at its central campus in Kingston, vice-president of IUC, Jennifer Martin, told the awardees that they were now ambassadors of the university and great things were expected of them.

2010 scholarship awardee David Allen, who achieved his bachelor of arts degree in community development, shared his journey as a tertiary track star and the sports project he is now embarking on in his community of Fletchers Land in Kingston.

He disclosed that the project was helping its participants to work through many of the conflicts that have affected them growing up in an inner-city community.

He implored the graduates to not just follow in his footsteps, but to do even more in their own communities.

Mayor of Kingston Desmond McKenzie told the graduates that approaching the 50th anniversary of Jamaica's independence there is a need for all Jamaicans to play their part in improving the society.

"Let us make a commitment that we are going to try to educate a new set of Jamaicans in the kind of discipline that is going to be required to make this country more self-sufficient as a productive nation.

"I beg of you, this opportunity that you are getting, take it in both hands and run with it," McKenzie said.