JWN FoundationSOURCE: Go Jamaica
IN TWO years, he could become the first diplomat to hail from Crook’s Gate, southwestern Clarendon.
That’s why Jamaal Muirhead is putting everything into ensuring that he emerges top of the class as he reads for a degree in International Relations at the University of the West Indies, Mona Campus, cour tesy of a J Wray & Nephew (JWN) Foundation scholarship.
He has completed the first task, by making the Dean’s List in his first year of study and does not intend to drop the ball on the race to the fin ish line which climaxes in two years.
Jamaal is no ordinary scholar ship seeker. While in grade 10 at Denbigh High School in Clarendon, he pushed forward to apply for a scholarship through the JWN Foundation. But that initial denial did not daunt him. Although not successful for the scholarship, the JWN Foundation along with Optical Elements donated a pair of glasses to help the young student during his course of study. Following success at Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examinations, he applied again for a scholarship to take him through sixth form. Guess what? He was successful! And that success pushed him even further, as he was embraced by the founda tion, which backed him financially, again, for the latest tertiary schol arship over three years.
“I don’t know what I would have done without these scholarships, because things were tough,”he said. “Students should be persistent and search for those scholarships be cause they are out there, and they are meaningful. By working hard at your academics and getting in volved in extracurricular activities, you will be able to land those schol arships,” he urged others.
With his engine in full revolu tion, Jamaal not only wants to be a member of Jamaica’s diplomatic corps but intends to be involved in something special. “The study of international relations is extremely important. It is more relevant now, based on the conflicts that we have seen with Hamas and Israel, with Russia and Ukraine … and being a part of that process, I would be able to help Jamaica on the foreign Jamaal Muirhead, JWN Foundation Scholarship recipient. CONTRIBUTED front, because Jamaica is heavily dependent on outside investments and outside relation are important to a country,” the now resident of Gimme-Me-Bit in Clarendon remarked.
As for something extra, politics may be another area in which he could serve, if utterances by community folk regarding his suita bility in that area are taken seriously by him. But there are doubts. “I do have the political and leadership acumen, but Jamaican politics … it can be a bit filthy at times, it can be a bit rough, it is not easy. Jamaican politics is a blood sport,” he ended.