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Co-writer: Azaleah Campbell

Thirty students who excelled in the 2024 Primary Exit Profile (PEP) on Tuesday (August 27) received scholarships from Guardsman Group.

This year’s ceremony held at the at Treehouse at Hope Zoo in St Andrew marked the 30th annual award ceremony celebrating the top performers among children of Guardsman employees who excelled in the Primary Exit Profile (PEP).

Parents and other family members accompanied the children as Executive Chairman Kenneth Benjamin and Managing Director Vinay Walia delivered encouraging words.

OurToday spoke with parents and young scholars at the event.

Sebastian Hall and his parents expressed their elation, citing hard work and successful study sessions with their son.

Sebastian hails from Belmont Park Primary School and will be attending Jamaica College for the upcoming school term. He was a prefect at the school and mentioned he had an amazing time there despite small challenges.

His mother Stacey-Ann Hall, said:, “We would review study topics the teacher passed to us together and we would try to remove the tablets and the phones and other distractions when it came down to the nitty-gritty.”

Her involvement in her son’s education was a heartwarming display of family engagement as she smiled and embraced her husband and son.

Another awardee, Dejuani Millwood was accompanied by his father and was relatively reserved during the ceremony.

Dejauni looks forward to studying for the sciences with a focus on technology. He graduated from St. Michael’s Primary School and earned a place at St. George College.

His father, Millwood, discussed the challenges of the PEP and the support he provided to his son. He called the awardees ‘a product of parental intervention’ and highlighted the kids’ determination, which led to their academic success.

When asked about who played the major role in choosing Dejauni’s top choices of high schools, Millwood said his son agreed to let him and his mother make the decision.

“The influence was mainly us to be honest because he’s more shy and doesn’t pay much emphasis to those things. Based on his personality we know George’s was the ultimate school for him to go.”

Byron Bryan like most parents at the ceremony was extremely proud of his son Malik Bryan when he heard that he passed for his first choice, Calabar High School.

As a security guard at Guardsman, Bryan said despite the long hours he works, he ensured his son got the necessities to stay focused on his schoolwork.

Malik spoke highly of Calabar High and said he feels that he could be a better person at the institution. With a bright future ahead, Malik hopes to excel at all subjects but specifically looks forward to doing more mathematics.

Guardsman backpacks were given out to all the scholarship recipients and Samsung tablets for the top 5 performers. Additionally, the Hope Zoo was opened up to every awardee freely for an entire year as long as they were accompanied by a parent/guardian.

The mother of Nicora Burke is extremely proud of her daughter who has waved Greater Portmore Primary goodbye to enter the gates of Merl Grove High next week. 

“I was excited, I was happy, because she over exceeded my expectations given some drawbacks, but she performed very well,” Gardens said. 

With this being the last week of back-to-school preparations, the Guardsman group scholarship came just in time to alleviate parents of the ordeal. 

“It is going to help a lot because I was struggling recently because I have some financial issues so it’s going to help tremendously with the back-to-school preparations,” Gardens commented. 

The journey to success for Nicora Burke was paved with much teamwork and togetherness. 

“I didn’t really study much but I was in study groups with some classmates, and we helped each other out with things we didn’t understand,” the 12-year-old said. 

Burke looks forward to sharpening her skills in mathematics and building on her athletic abilities in her new school environment. 

Meanwhile, 12-year-old Alaina Scott continues her quest to become a dermatologist at the St. Andrew High School for Girls. 

Scott, who also aspires to start her own skincare business in the future, looks to study the sciences in pursuit of her dreams, something her parents are very supportive of. 

“I am looking forward for her to excel higher because I always tell her that the sky is the limit, she just [needs to] keep on pushing herself to get higher grades, and holding up her head doing her best, study hard, work hard, putting God first,” her mom Shanna Walcott told Our Today.