THE 2022-2023 St. Lucia Electricity Services Limited (LUCELEC) scholarship recipient class is the single largest in the company’s history. This is a powerful statement for a programme that has contributed to the educational pursuits of LUCELEC employees’ children for the past 38 years – almost four decades!
In August, the company held its 15th scholarship social to welcome its Freshman Class of 11 new recipients and to celebrate the achievement of its 2022-2023 academic class. Among the highlights were its Top Performing Tertiary Student, Tammy Pultie; Top Performing Secondary School Student, Aiden George and Most Improved Student, Xavi John. Eybhee Busetle, Kenaz Joseph and Makayla Charles all successfully graduated and are exiting the programme.
LUCELEC Human Resource Services Lead Amy Henry-Demille is the Chairperson of the scholarship scheme. She says it is part of the company’s employee benefit package because education plays a crucial role in building a brighter future for the nation’s youth.
“LUCELEC boasts a premium scholarship programme which covers the cost of approved textbooks, uniforms and stationery allowance, school bags, school and facilities fees and one-time CXC fees for Form 5 and one-time CAPE exams. Children of all employees are eligible for the scholarship which are based on the results of the Caribbean Primary Exit Assessment (CPEA).”
The event’s featured speaker was former scholarship holder and now Dr. Kyra Joseph. She spoke directly to the new recruits, returning students, parents and the company.
Using her personal experience, Dr. Joseph encouraged the scholars to reach for greatness:
“To all the new scholarship recipients, all 11 of you, congratulations! You’ve made it to secondary school. A new chapter in your life. Your journey through secondary school is just about to begin. The workload now will be more than you’re used to, it will be a new environment with new people with more subjects, but all this means it’s that it’s a new opportunity for you to grow. The skillsets that took you to this point is the same one that will carry you through this journey. Now you just have to put in a little bit of extra effort, be consistent with your studying, stay on top of your workload and learn to balance your time. And to LUCELEC, on behalf of all the scholarship recipients, both past and present, I would like to thank you for being part of our support system. Thank you for the very real contribution that you have made to making us able to chase our dreams.”
LUCELEC Managing Director Gilroy Pultie is no stranger to academic excellence. He was the top performing Mathematics student and second overall on the island in his Common Entrance year. He is also an Island Scholar. The Managing Director credited all his achievements to the strength of his mind and encouraged the students to guard theirs selfishly to achieve their own success.
“And how do you program your mind? You actually program your mind by what you read, what you listen to, even the friends that you have and the discussions that you have. What you think about, what you ponder over, you are programming your mind.”
Students have to maintain a 65% average in each subject and an overall average of 70% to retain the LUCELEC scholarship. The theme for the Scholarship Social was, “Raising the Bar: Empowering young minds to achieve academic excellence.”
