Melanie’s legacy

Raphael Lovell and Rico Yearwood are the winners of this year’s Melanie Kristin Price Foundation scholarship.

The two young men received their scholarships today from Yvette Oxley and Glyne Price who founded the foundation in 2014 after their daughter Melanie lost her battle with cancer that same year.

Minister of Education, Technological and Vocational Training Santia Bradshaw also participated in the presentation ceremony, which was held at the Ministry’s Constitution Road, St Michael office this morning.

Lovell, the Secondary School Scholarship winner, was the top boy at Milton Lynch School in the Common Entrance Examination and will be attending Queen’s College. Lovell won first prize in the Ministry of Energy and Water Resources Essay Competition themed “Executing the Energy Revolution in Barbados”.

He also captained his school team in the 2018 Herman Griffith Primary Schools’ Cricket Competition and led his team in winning their zone, for which he was awarded the Most Valuable Player (MVP), Highest Run Scorer, Player of the Zone and Highest Individual Score in the tournament. Lovell also represented his school in field events at the National Primary Schools Athletics Championship and as a chess player.

“I feel accomplished. I knew I was going to win it since I wrote it. I just had this feeling in me that I could. Obviously, you can see here today that I did. I am very proud of myself and I am very thankful to my parents for their help and support and hopefully, I can continue,” Lovell said.

Yearwood was awarded the first tranche of the Hugh Wooding Law School Scholarship in 2018. However, his second disbursement was conditional on the academic performance in the first year. He has successfully done that and received the second tranche of $5, 000 today.

Yearwood told members of the media the first year at Hugh Wooding was a tough ride but he managed to continue on a successful trajectory to win the scholarship again to secure the second tranche.

“I pray that I do continue on the successful trajectory. I remember before I was awarded the scholarship to pursue my legal studies at Hugh Wooding Law School, I looked at the snippet on the website on how Melanie lived her life, and two things stood out to me.

“One was that she had an overwhelming passion for law and two is that she tried to help others in the best possible way that she could. It reminded me of myself and my only desire at this point is to perpetuate the legacy that Melanie would have created,” Yearwood said.

Delivering remarks, Oxley said the foundation was in solid alignment with the indelible force it has been named after. She said Melanie’s legacy was one of quiet determination coupled with charm, peacefulness, strength, humor, encouragement, pursuit of excellence and an overall genuine love for others. The foundation aims to help outstanding and driven young people reach their full potential.

Minister Bradshaw congratulated the young men on their win and encouraged them to keep reaching for academic excellence. (AH)