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Jamaican students secure record placement in top US colleges
2008-05-24 Written by: No Author
Jamaican students have long been favoured recipients of scholarships from prestigious overseas universities. However, the country outdid itself in 2008 when, with Ivy League universities accepting only 3.5 per cent of their freshman class as international students, Jamaicans received a record number of scholarships to some of the top universities in the USA.
This year, with an unprecedented increase in baby boomer children preparing to attend university, six students from Jamaican high schools have been accepted to seven of the eight Ivy League universities – including Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Cornell, Columbia, Dartmouth and the University of Pennsylvania – with some students being accepted to more than one. Another seven students were accepted into eight other prestigious institutions, including MIT, Johns Hopkins and Ithaca University.
The students competed with others from countries such as England, France, India, Bulgaria, South Korea, and Trinidad and Tobago, for places in those institutions.
Sandra Bramwell, director of the Versan Educational Institute in Kingston, one of Jamaica's leading institutions which specialises in preparing students for the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), through which students gain entrance to the colleges, acknowledged that the 2008 performance of the Jamaicans had exceeded all expectations.
They were in record-breaking mode and Versan is delighted to have been able to play a lead role in once again placing Jamaica within the top ranks of the world’s academic achievers, an accomplishment which should bring a high level of pride to our country as a whole,” she added.
Examples of the records to which Mrs. Bramwell referred, include the one set by Dominique Lyew of Campion College, who was accepted to both Princeton University and Yale University; and another set by Jordan Peart of Immaculate Conception High School and Khaesha Hall of Campion College, who became the first two fully Jamaican-schooled students to have been accepted to Harvard University in the past three years. Khaesha was also one of four girls who were offered places at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), with the others being twin sisters Lauren and Elaina Chai, and sixth-former Shanique Richards, all of Immaculate Conception High. Shanique was also offered a US $60,000.00 scholarship to the University of Chicago.
Scoring another double with his acceptance to both Cornell and Dartmouth was Winston Butler of St. George’s College, while Hillel’s David Marston was offered places at a total of four universities – the Ivy League University of Pennsylvania, as well as Johns Hopkins, Tufts and Swarthmore.
But Mrs. Bramwell made special mention of the fact that students from a wider cross-section of schools in a greater number of Jamaican parishes also did exceptionally well. For instance, Christopher Crooks of Montego Bay Community College was accepted to Cornell University; Sudie-Ann Robinson of Dinthill Technical High in Linstead received a solid scholarship to Ithaca University, and Mo Bay Community College’s top scorer Shawna-Marie Hendricks accomplished a coup in securing a 90 per cent scholarship to Worchester Polytechnic University.
2008-05-24 Written by: No Author
Jamaican students have long been favoured recipients of scholarships from prestigious overseas universities. However, the country outdid itself in 2008 when, with Ivy League universities accepting only 3.5 per cent of their freshman class as international students, Jamaicans received a record number of scholarships to some of the top universities in the USA.
This year, with an unprecedented increase in baby boomer children preparing to attend university, six students from Jamaican high schools have been accepted to seven of the eight Ivy League universities – including Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Cornell, Columbia, Dartmouth and the University of Pennsylvania – with some students being accepted to more than one. Another seven students were accepted into eight other prestigious institutions, including MIT, Johns Hopkins and Ithaca University.
The students competed with others from countries such as England, France, India, Bulgaria, South Korea, and Trinidad and Tobago, for places in those institutions.
Sandra Bramwell, director of the Versan Educational Institute in Kingston, one of Jamaica's leading institutions which specialises in preparing students for the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), through which students gain entrance to the colleges, acknowledged that the 2008 performance of the Jamaicans had exceeded all expectations.
They were in record-breaking mode and Versan is delighted to have been able to play a lead role in once again placing Jamaica within the top ranks of the world’s academic achievers, an accomplishment which should bring a high level of pride to our country as a whole,” she added.
Examples of the records to which Mrs. Bramwell referred, include the one set by Dominique Lyew of Campion College, who was accepted to both Princeton University and Yale University; and another set by Jordan Peart of Immaculate Conception High School and Khaesha Hall of Campion College, who became the first two fully Jamaican-schooled students to have been accepted to Harvard University in the past three years. Khaesha was also one of four girls who were offered places at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), with the others being twin sisters Lauren and Elaina Chai, and sixth-former Shanique Richards, all of Immaculate Conception High. Shanique was also offered a US $60,000.00 scholarship to the University of Chicago.
Scoring another double with his acceptance to both Cornell and Dartmouth was Winston Butler of St. George’s College, while Hillel’s David Marston was offered places at a total of four universities – the Ivy League University of Pennsylvania, as well as Johns Hopkins, Tufts and Swarthmore.
But Mrs. Bramwell made special mention of the fact that students from a wider cross-section of schools in a greater number of Jamaican parishes also did exceptionally well. For instance, Christopher Crooks of Montego Bay Community College was accepted to Cornell University; Sudie-Ann Robinson of Dinthill Technical High in Linstead received a solid scholarship to Ithaca University, and Mo Bay Community College’s top scorer Shawna-Marie Hendricks accomplished a coup in securing a 90 per cent scholarship to Worchester Polytechnic University.