Entertainment
JAM | Jun 9, 2022

‘Graduates Can Fly Singing Competition’ to build student empowerment

Ategie Edwards

Ategie Edwards / Our Today

Reading Time: 3 minutes
Lauren Campbell. (Photo: Instagram @thelcshow)

With the summer holiday approaching, and students gearing up to once again transition to the next phase of their lives, the Graduates Can Fly Singing Competition is aiming to empower youngsters across Jamaica and throughout the Caribbean.

Contestants are to submit a video, maximum three minutes, at their graduation exercise, singing their rendition of Caterpillars Can Fly.

The track, inspired by Alvin Day’s bestselling book, If Caterpillars Can Fly, So Can I, was done by Jamaican dancehall artiste Agent Sasco and his daughter, Lauren Campbell, and was released during Child Month in May last year.

Agent Sasco (Photo: Tidal)

Launched yesterday (June 8), the Jeffrey ‘Agent Sasco’ Campbell and Alvin Day competition, endorsed by the Ministry of Education and Youth, seeks to aid children in their continuous transformation.

“The Ministry of Education and Youth recognises the empowerment that this offers to students as they continue their transformation from caterpillars to butterflies. We encourage school leaders to sensitise and guide the students who wish to participate,” the education ministry said in a release.

Day, who echoed the ministry’s sentiments, shared that he hoped the initiative would positively impact young persons in their development journey, noting that he himself discovered what it took to learn how to transform.

Alvin Day (Photo: AlvinDay.com)

“Growing up, I didn’t have the privileges or respectability of polite society, and, in fact, many people didn’t expect me to make it. However, I discovered what it takes to transform and soar – learned how to fly!”

As a show of gratitude to the hardworking Jamaican teachers who helped him to escape poverty, Day gave away 26,000 digital copies of the book free of cost to every teacher in Jamaica through the
Ministry of Education on Teachers’ Day in 2021,” the author said.

Open to both primary and secondary level students in grades 6, 11 and 12, the competition will give them the chance to win a total cash prize of up to J$350,000.

Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport Minister Olivia Grange.

Olivia Grange, minister of culture, gender, entertainment and sport, expressed her contentment in endorsing the competition.

“It is clear that this competition seeks to inspire students to achieve their aspirations, and so, as the minister of culture, gender, entertainment, and sport, it gives me great pleasure to endorse the 2022 Graduates Can Fly Singing Competition.”

Entries should be sent via email to [email protected].

Caterpillars Can Fly by Agent Sasco Ft. The LC Show

See competition rules below:

  1. Please check for detailed rules about the competition on Alvin Day’s (@alvindayspeaks) and Agent Sasco’s (@agentsasco) Facebook and Instagram accounts. 
  • Schools must perform and submit their rendition of the song, Caterpillars Can Fly by Agent Sasco Ft. The LC Show (see YouTube lyric video). It must be a video three minutes long or less and must be done at their graduation exercise.
  • Videos are to be sent by email via WeTransfer or Google Drive to [email protected], and should be labelled with the name of the school. Videos will be uploaded to social media for voting between July 1 – 31, 2022 and the videos with the highest number of ‘likes’ will win the top prizes in each category. 
  • The school community encourages people to vote on their video by sharing the information. Only votes on the designated social media pages before midnight on July 31, 2022 will count towards prizes.
  • Alvin Day and Agent Sasco reserve the right to reuse excerpts of the videos. 
  • Winners will be announced on August 8, 2022. 

For further information please send an email to [email protected]

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