UWI med students win Scotia bursaries

Anna Lee Clarke and Jenielle Brown are winners of the Scotia Mutual Fund and Scotia Mint Education Wealth Plan bursaries.

Two medical students at the University of the West Indies, 27-year-old Anna Lee Clarke and 20-year-old Jenielle Brown, are the 2014 recipients of J$100,000 bursaries from the Education Wealth Plan (EWP) available through Scotia Mutual Fund and Scotia Mint.

To qualify for scholarships and bursaries, customers have to maintain their EWP for a year, after which they can enter to receive one of the following:

Two tertiary scholarships - maximum value of $100,000 each.

Two high-school scholarships - maximum value of $25,000 each.

Ten GSAT bursaries valued at $12,500 each.

Two tertiary bursaries valued at $25,000 each.

"Actually, when I got the call from Scotiabank, I thought it was a prank call because I always wanted to win a scholarship but never thought I would get one. I was screaming more than the lady on the other end of the line and barely heard all the instructions on how to receive the award," said Brown, a first-year medical student.

welcomed financial assistance

"Financially, this bursary means a lot for us because in 2012, my mother had an extreme surgery, which put us back financially, plus, my father stopped working. So when I got the award, I said, 'Yes, thank God!' and my mother said that she knew that God was watching over us," Brown, a former Hampton High student, remarked.

For Clarke, who is due to graduate from medical school next year, the news could not have come at a better time.

"I was excited and relieved. I was excited for my parents because funding of my education is a big part, and so it is nice for them to have a little support," Clarke, a future oncology surgeon, said.

Medicine gives Clarke the chance to merge her people skills with her love for the sciences.

"Medicine is unique and you get to combine science with working with people, and doing my clinical rounds visiting hospitals, you find patients really listening to what you have to say, and I feel humbled," Clarke added.

For Brown, a future anaesthesiology specialist, her foray into medicine is something that her mother predicted at an early age.