Gruelling but rewarding is how the two 2020 Chevening Scholarship winners have described the process.
Toni Thorne and Danielle Howell on Thursday copped the prestigious scholarships for Barbados, joining seven other awardees from Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St Lucia and St Vincent and the Grenadines.
In an interview with Barbados TODAY, the pair, who both hail from St John, could not contain their excitement as they spoke about the moments leading up to the achievement.
Thorne said: “My phone has been going off, we knew it for a little while and it was a hard secret to keep. I’m just really excited and I’m happy that it’s two women from St John, so greatness comes from St John and I’m just very excited.”
Describing the scholarship as “priceless”, Thorne said she is happy to be representing Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean.
“It is a very prestigious scholarship …sometimes you have to jump through a lot of hurdles but it has been a character builder,” she said.
Thorne copped a double scholarship and will be pursuing an MBA in Business Administration at the University of Cambridge with The Cambridge Commonwealth, European & International Trust.
Toni Thorne (left) and Danielle Howell.
About her choice of field, she said: “I still think that business is the greatest thing to change the world and change people’s lives.”
Danielle Howell did not allow a previous rejection to stop her but rather used it as motivation to work even harder to gain the scholarship.
Howell said: “I knew that this is something that I really wanted and the second time around I put my all into it and dedicated most of my time after work into doing my Chevening essays and because I worked so hard I was able to submit the essay three weeks before the deadline I was so sure that this is what I wanted to do.”
Howell said the wait to see if she made it to the next step made her anxious. She said: “I finally got that email in January saying you’ve gone onto the next stage, so I had to prepare all over again for the interview, I met with previous Cheveningers to ask them what the progress was like, I practised with co-workers I went to the interview and I did what I had to do.
“My mom was more excited than me, every day she was asking if I heard anything. We received the results in June and then it was a very hard secret to keep.
“I just wanted to say “I got this award!”
Describing it as the best birthday gift ever Howell was said she felt a bit overwhelmed but extremely thankful, “grateful is the word of the day”.
She will be pursuing a masters degree in Coastal and Marine Resource Management at the University of Portsmouth, on England’s south coast.
She explained that her bachelor of science degree is in environmental and natural resources management and so she wanted to specialise.
Howell said: “I was so happy when the Prime Minister made the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and the Blue Economy and I said this is perfect. I want to be one of those persons who helps the ministry along and I think I can contribute a lot bringing back that information and sharing it.”
Janet Douglas, the British High Commissioner to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean, was once again pleased to see the number of scholarships awarded to the region this year.
Douglas said: “I am heartened to see that Barbados and the islands of the Eastern Caribbean have produced nine more outstanding Chevening scholars this year, replicating the same level of success from 2019.” kobiebroomes@barbadostoday.bb
