JLP launches five more anniversary scholarships

To commemorate the Jamaica Labour Party’s (JLP) 79th anniversary, Prime Minister Andrew Holness has announced that the party is expanding the number of tertiary scholarships it provides to prospective students.

Speaking at the JLP’s anniversary service held Sunday at Webster Memorial United Church, Holness, who is the party leader, said that five additional scholarships are being awarded this year.

Each year, the party gives bursaries to Jamaicans aged 17 to 25 to pursue studies in specific areas at university. These awards are named in honour of senior party functionaries who served during JLP administrations.

This year, the new scholarships are as follows:

1. The Chris Bovell Scholarship for computer science or data science.

2. The Derrick Smith Scholarship for criminology.

3. The Hector Wynter Scholarship for languages or journalism.

4. The Robert Lightbourne Scholarship for urban planning.

5. The Oswald Harding Scholarship for law or legal drafting.

“It has become our custom in celebrating our anniversary that we acknowledge those who have served and we pay forward to those who are coming … ,” Holness said.

“This is now our fourth year of doing it, and we have graduated one cohort and we are very pleased to have done so.”

Fact Box

* Chris Bovell is a prominent attorney with more than 50 years of experience. He served as government senator between 1983 and 1989 and as a longstanding treasurer of the JLP.

* Derrick Smith served as member of the JLP for 40 years, shadowing the national security portfolio for half that time. Between 2007 and 2008, he served as national security minister in the Bruce Golding administration.

* Hector Wynter served as a member of the first Jamaican Senate. He was parliamentary secretary for external affairs and minister of state for education, and later, youth. In 1970 he was elected chairman of the JLP.

* Robert Lightbourne was an industrialist and four-term MP for St Thomas Western between 1959 and 1976. He served as Jamaica’s minister of trade and industry in the 1960s and early 1970s.

* Oswald Harding served in the Senate for a combined 28 years. He was attorney general under Edward Seaga in the 1980s and president of the Senate between 1980 and 1984 and 2007 until his retirement in 2011