When the judges for the GraceKennedy Foundation 2025 Scholarship committee interviewed aspiring medical doctor, Justin Preddie, they knew he was the perfect fit for the inaugural Don Wehby Scholarship.

Additionally, Preddie is a past student of St. George’s College, the alma mater of Wehby, the late Chairman and Group Chief Executive Officer, GraceKennedy, and a hardworking fellow with excellence for Jamaica’s medical field in mind.

Carolyn Mahfood, Chief Executive Officer, GraceKennedy Foundation, said Preddie was also chosen, given his youthful balance and approach to life.

“The scholarship is for a student who is excellent in academics and sports, and Justin had both. He’s a medical student, as well as he was the captain of the volleyball team at St. George’s. He’s now very involved in volleyball at UWI, so he had everything that we needed for the inaugural winner of the scholarship,” Mahfood explained to Our Today after Preddie was awarded at the GraceKennedy Foundation Scholars Awards Ceremony held at the University of Technology (UTech) in Papine, St. Andrew on Thursday, October 9.

She said establishing the scholarship was one of the ways GraceKennedy wanted to honour Wehby and his legacy.

“He loved St. George’s [College]. He’s always loved sports. He was an athlete himself, and we thought this was a fitting way to honour him, and he was also very invested in education,” she said.

Preddie is expected to collect J$500,000 annually as part of the scholarship package, once he maintains above-average passes in the Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) programme he is pursuing at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona.

After being announced the winner, Preddie told Our Today that he was feeling “great right now”.

“I’m truly elated because Don Wehby is someone who is my alumnus. He’s from the same alma mater. We bleed the same blue blood; St. George’s College, so to get that scholarship in his name, it’s just an honour, especially with all the works that he’s done, it makes me want to live up to his standard,” the 22-year-old doctor in pursuit said.

“Growing up in St. George’s College, they always used to speak about Don Wehby. I was involved in sports, and they would mention Don Wehby is almost everything, and then after high school, that’s when I did more research and realised that this guy actually gives back, even though we might not realise,” he said.

He was over the moon for being in the same room with “like-minded” persons and scholars, and noted that he decided to pursue medicine because he had an injury in the fourth form.

“Medicine has been something that I did not grow up wanting [to do], but eventually I realised that it’s something that I was called to. Back in high school, [when pursuing] CXC/CSEC, that’s when I decided that’s what was right for me,” Preddie told Our Today.

Preddie started pursuing sports at St. George’s College with swimming in grade seven, rugby in grade eight, then football trials, and volleyball in third form, which he has stood with, becoming the volleyball captain between fourth form and upper sixth form.

He now intends to build on his foundation and pay it forward as Wehby did when he was alive.

Becoming successful in academics, is something the resident of Portmore was not an easy task, given that he had to commute early and late each day from the parish of St. Catherine to the capital city of Kingston daily, and back.

He said the major challenge still exists where he has to wake up at 4:00 am to travel to Kingston and then fight again to return home.

“That has been my life since prep school, through high school and now through college. That has been my major challenge, which has really affected my study time, but I learnt to overcome it,” Preddie, who attended Ardenne Prep School, said.

Preddie copped 10 distinctions in CSEC subjects—Mathematics, English Language, Chemistry, Biology, Physics, Information Technology, Principles of Economics, Principles of Accounts, Additional Mathmatics and Electrical Engineering. In CAPE, he got distinctions for units one in Chemistry, Biology and Physics, but two in unit two Biology.

Preddie is excited about the clinical rounds he has had so far at the Kingston Public Hospital and the University Hospital of the West Indies, but is undecided about a specialty he would like to have after completing his MBBS.