Garvey Scholarship awardees keen on giving back
Published:Thursday | August 18, 2022 | 12:11 AM
The Ministry of Finance and Public Service awarded 14 civil servants with the Marcus Garvey Public Sector Graduate Scholarship on Wednesday, the 135th anniversary of the birth of the country’s first national hero.
During the awards ceremony, which was held at King’s House, Finance and Public Service Minister Dr Nigel Clarke said that the scholarship would provide the recipients with a strong foundation to build on their service to the public sector.
“You’re going to have to be able to make the right type of decisions. Public policy formulation, public policy implementation, and public policy review and risk management requires expertise. It’s not child’s play, and we want to make sure that we have the best path. We want to make sure that persons who lead in all areas of the public sector have the best possible preparation for that journey, and hence, we established this scholarship to achieve that goal,” he said.
The scholarship will cover full tuition and provide a stipend to the recipients to assist with monthly costs such as meals and accommodation.
For those attending universities overseas, the scholarship will fund their departure and return airfare.
Scholarship awardee Shanique Graham, who works in the Ministry of Justice, told The Gleaner that she was happy to have been given the nod by the selection committee.
“It gives me a great sense of pride, having been in the public service for so long and wanting to contribute to the country. So this is another stepping stone that will be able to propel my education and to do well and give back to my country,” she said.
Graham, who aspires to one day be appointed the director of public prosecutions, will be pursuing studies in public law.
Dr Astrid Batchelor, another recipient who works in the Ministry of Health and Wellness, shared similar sentiments.
“I’m elated to have been awarded this prestigious scholarship. I’m definitely going to be using it to improve the health sector here in Jamaica for more effective change,” said Batchelor, who will read for a master’s in public health.
“I think that our health economics and our health financing has a lot of improvements to be done, and that’s the area that I’d like to specialise in,” she said.
Born on August 17, 1887, Garvey, in whose honour the scholarship is named, was a Jamaica-born black nationalist and leader of the Pan-Africanism movement, which sought to unify and connect people of African descent worldwide.