|
Volume
11,
No. 1 Spring 2001 |
 |
 |
|
A
newsletter of the Lyford Cay Foundation, Inc. |
2
|
 |
 |
 |
|
||||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
|
|
Meet 7th All-Bahamas Merit Scholar, Riccardo Davis Outstanding student, athlete and musician studies Pre-Med in Canada |
| When the Ministry of Education, The Central Bank
of The Bahamas and the Lyford Cay Foundation first introduced the idea of
joining forces to offer a single outstanding student the country’s
most valuable scholarship, there was less concern about the ability to fund
the annual award than whether there would be a worthy recipient to carry
the ambitious program forward. Offering a scholarship worth up to $100,000 over a four-year college career meant identifying a single student so promising that the investment would not only guarantee a good education, but would influence and inspire others. It meant finding a student so outstanding he or she would be nothing short of remarkable. The seventh All-Bahamas Merit Scholar was introduced to the Bahamian public at a press conference in January. Former Minister of State for Education Zhivargo Laing called Riccardo Davis “the latest in a parade of truly outstanding Bahamian students. Each of these scholars has been the kind of young person who makes all of us proud and gives us great faith in the ability of our young people and the future of our country. Riccardo, an outstanding student, athlete, musician and human being is no exception.” |
 |
“…Each of these scholars has been the
kind of young person who makes all of us proud and gives us great faith
in the ability of our young people and the future of our country…” –Zhivargo Laing Former Minister of State for Education |
| Davis, 18, graduated from Queen’s College
in Nassau last June after maintaining a straight A average for four years
and being on the Honor Roll each grading period. He was Head Boy, earned honors in Math, Spanish and Geography, achieved a Pass with Distinction in the Royal School of Music Theory, was Vice President of Finance in Junior Achievement in 1998-99 and from February-April 1998, was involved in a Securities Commission of The Bahamas Investor Education and Protection campaign to increase his knowledge of how the market worked. In 1998, he took an educational trip to Guatemala to improve his Spanish. He has helped in numerous community projects. Davis, who is studying Pre-Med at Queen’s University in Ontario, is the fourth recipient of the country’s most valuable scholarship to have graduated from Queen’s College in Nassau and the second to choose a college in Canada. Other All-Bahamas Merit Scholars have gone on to Yale, Boston University, MIT, University of Western Ontario, Tufts University and Johns Hopkins. |
|
Abaco
students on campuses from Palm Beach to Toronto
|
| Three years ago, many students graduated from
local Abaco high schools with a world of potential but little hope of continuing
their educational or professional development. In 1998 this harsh reality prompted a group of concerned winter residents to address the financial roadblocks that promising students faced. Their goal: |
raise $1 million for the education of Abaconians. Their means: enlist the help, administrative and screening skills of the Lyford Cay Foundation, the region’s largest private benefactor of education. Their pledge: to make awards based on capability and financial need for young residents with no discrimination between those pursuing academic disciplines and | those wanting to train in technical and vocational
fields that are in demand in Abaco. Eight students are enrolled in courses today, five with Abaco Scholarship Fund aid and another three with Lyford Cay Foundation scholarships, some as far away as Toronto, others as close as Palm Beach. |
| Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3 | Page 4 | Page 5 | Page 6 |
Caystone Spring 2002 Newsletter