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Basseterre, St. Kitts July 24, 2020- Further happiness and gratitude beamed from the faces of Ajounique Griffin and Naheel Delpleshe during their graduation ceremony from the Edgar T. Morris Primary School in Tabernacle, on Thursday July 23, 2020, when it was announced that they were the successful recipients of the Sonia Boddie Promising Youth Leader Scholarship.

Scholarship Founder and Director, Mrs. Sonia Boddie-Thompson, while delivering brief remarks at the ceremony expressed, “I remain firmly committed to annually offering this scholarship, because it is my way of giving back to the school that gave me my foundation and the community which played a great role in raising me into a positive young woman. I am also a very grateful beneficiary of several scholarships having come from humble beginnings and I can testify to the transformational impact a scholarship can have on a child, who just needs that extra assistance to set them on the right path, as they advance to secondary school, filled with dreams and aspirations.”

While praising the people of Tabernacle for their continued inspiration and spirit of generosity, she remarked, “I want to say that we are a generous community and I am inspired by that. I want to publicly thank the parent who contacted me privately and asked me not to consider their child for the scholarship, but quickly recommended another child who they felt would be more deserving given their family circumstances. Thank you for being so thoughtful, considerate and kindhearted.”

Mrs. Boddie-Thompson also expressed her continued delight at reading the application essays written by the students, where they outline the professions they wish to undertake in future. She remarked, “As someone who enjoys traveling, I was very pleased to learn that one student desires to become an Immigration Officer, so that she may conduct interviews with travelers and help to control who is allowed in and out of our country, in an effort to maintain law and order. The future of our country looks bright.”

She also shared the good news that the very first two scholars, who were awarded in 2014, did very well in CXC exams in 2019 and are now both students at the Clarence Fitzroy Bryant College.

The Scholarship, which is valued at estimated $500.00 EC dollars per child, is in its seventh year and has been awarded to seventeen (17) children from the Tabernacle community, who exhibit financial need and exude promise. The Sonia Boddie-Promising Youth Leader Scholarship annually provides two graduating students from the Edgar T. Morris Primary School, with a shopping trip in the capital city Basseterre with Mrs. Sonia Boddie-Thompson, to purchase school uniforms and supplies. Students are also treated to lunch at any place of their preference. In 2018, in commemoration of the fifth anniversary of the Scholarship, the entire graduating class of some five students were all awarded the coveted scholarship.

Mrs. Sonia Boddie-Thompson currently serves as the Clerk of the National Assembly and as a Senior Foreign Service Officer in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Civil Aviation.