Dominique excels like dad

Queen’s College student Dominique Lafond hopes to follow in the footsteps of her obstetrician/gynaecologist father who himself was a star student in his native Dominica.

Dr Geoffrey Lafond was a Dominican island scholar, and last Friday his daughter was announced as a Government Exhibition winner for excelling in the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examinations (CAPE).

This is an accomplishment that Dominique, who received grade 1’s in Caribbean Studies, Chemistry, Physics, and Pure Mathematics, and a grade 2 in Communications Studies, said she was proud of.

“I am really thankful. I am really happy. I first told myself, Dominique, you could do it, and then I put in a lot of work.

Dr Geoffrey Lafond and his daughter Dominique Lafond

“I studied fairly hard. I practised and kept on practising. If I couldn’t get something done, I would try again. If I couldn’t get it done again I might ask a friend for help, I might ask a teacher for help, until I was successful.”

Lafond wants to study actuarial science since she loved mathematics, she declared.

Dr Lafond, a consultant at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH), said he was proud of his daughter who he said always remained focused and hardworking.

He told Barbados TODAY: “She says, ‘dad you are an island scholar and I want to at least get a scholarship or an exhibition.’ So I am proud that she got an exhibition.

“I have always been proud of Dominique. She is not just academic minded. She is well rounded. She took part in athletics for her school, she swam for her school. She was head girl at both primary [St Angela’s] and high school.”

When asked if it was his wish for his daughter to join him in medicine, the doctor said “absolutely not”.

He added: “I am absolutely happy that she is not doing medicine.

“She can go and explore something else. Yes medicine is rewarding, but I know it has its challenges and after going through it I wouldn’t want her to go through it as well.”