Sagicor Group Jamaica senior vice-president, general counsel & corporate secretary, Janice Grant Taffe (1st row, centre), along with Minister of State in the Ministry of Education Floyd Green (1st row, right) and Damion Crawford (1st row, left), keynote speaker at the Sagicor Foundation Scholarship Awards ceremony, share in a photo op with the 2017 tertiary Sagicor scholars, who were presented with their awards yesterday at a ceremony held at the Jamaica Pegasus in Kingston.

THE SAGICOR Foundation yesterday awarded 68 scholarships to exceptional Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT) (37) and tertiary (31) awardees at its annual Scholarship Awards Ceremony.

Top students from across the island were selected from a pool of hundreds of applicants and honoured at the event at the Jamaica Pegasus in Kingston.

The 37 GSAT scholarships were awarded to children of various Sagicor stakeholders who excelled in the annual secondary school placement examination. The scholars include children of clients, team members and members of the Jamaica Defence Force. Scholarships were awarded to the 2017 Champion boy and girl from the Jamaica Teachers’ Association/Sagicor National Athletics Championship.

Sagicor said a scholarship fund for children of Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) service members was a first this year and saw 14 children soldiers benefiting from educational grants valued at $40,000 each for one academic year. The remaining 23 GSAT awardees’ scholarships are valued at $50,000 each for five years, renewed annually. GSAT scholars were selected based on their strong academic performance.

For the tertiary scholarships, 31 scholars were selected based on academic performance, as well as community involvement, volunteerism, strong leadership potential and financial need. The tertiary scholars will be attending some of Jamaica’s top institutions — the University of the West Indies; University of Technology Jamaica; Mico University College, the Caribbean Maritime Institute, Northern Caribbean University; University of the Commonwealth Caribbean; and the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts.

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/sagicor-foundation-awards-68-scholarships-to-gsat-tertiary-students_108919