STEM academy opens in Falmouth

WESTERN BUREAU:

A STEM academy aimed at boosting performance for gifted students with an affinity for science, technology, engineering and mathematics has been established in Falmouth, Trelawny.

An extension of Western STEM Academy, where 25-year-old Phelisa Ricketts is principal, the school officially opened its doors on Duke Street in Falmouth on Monday.

“This is about bringing access to western Jamaica, to rural Jamaica, so that the process can be advanced in science and technology and have equal opportunities to accelerate globally,” the pioneering educator told The Gleaner.

The institution can accommodate 70 students in three classrooms. The day school is accepting students ages 11-18, Ricketts confirmed, adding that adults and high-school students can access PEP classes in the evenings.

Those classes will commence next Monday, with January 2023 set as the date for full-time classes.

Western STEM Academy gets most of its students from Kingston and St Andrew and Montego Bay, but Ricketts explained that she wants to recruit more students from rural Jamaica, where the development in education is lacking.

“We want to stimulate youth in rural Jamaica so that they, too, can have access, so they get equal opportunities to excel globally,” she stated.

When asked if children from depressed communities could afford to attend her school, Ricketts, who is passionate about community service, said flexible payment plans are available to all students.

“We’re actually planning to have some partnerships and scholarships, so that it doesn’t matter their socio-economic background. We are targeting different stakeholders to actually give us sponsorship to sponsor students who are gifted in these areas, to afford this quality of education,” she said.

Since the inception of Western STEM Academy, the school has helped over 10,000 students through CSEC workshops that are held annually. However, the school is constrained by limited financing, which is derived mainly from tuition.

The aim, she said, is to seek public-private partnerships for investments going forward.

Trained at the Church Teachers’ College, Ricketts was placed in a girls’ home at 14 years old because of her uncontrollable behaviour. She went through of period of hopelessness before finding her groove and making a 360-degree turn.

She now focuses her attention on transforming the minds of students worldwide.

janet.silvera@gleanerjm.com