Carreras honours record 90 scholarship recipients

Carreras Limited hosted a scholarship award ceremony and brunch at the Spanish Court Hotel in Kingston on Saturday, January 28 to honour its 2022 scholarship recipients.

The company commemorated its 60th anniversary last year and issued a record 90 scholarships valued at approximately $20 million to students pursuing various areas of study at 17 tertiary institutions across Jamaica.

Franklin Murillo, the company’s newly installed managing director, attributes the historic move in part to Carreras’ inaugural implementation of an online applications portal which allowed the publicly traded industry leader in nearly doubling 2021’s 56-beneficiary tally.

“For the first time in our organisation’s history, candidates for the Carreras scholarships were able to complete and submit their applications electronically on the company’s website,” he said. Over 1,500 applications were received on the online site.

The company acknowledged that the future of its annual scholarship programme is uncertain due to the possibility of a sponsorship embargo if certain provisions of the proposed Tobacco Control Act, 2020 are passed into law. Murillo noted, however, that Carreras was committed to the philanthropic undertaking. He said, “The company is keen to continue its self-sponsored scholarship programme while it is still legally able to do so.” He maintained that “there is no greater satisfaction to us than giving back and helping those who need it most”.

The annual scholarships are presented to tertiary students with exemplary academic performance and are in need of financial assistance. They must be Jamaican citizens, 18 years and older, who have achieved at least a B average or 3.0 GPA in the previous academic year.

The annual Carreras Scholarship disbursements date back to 1967. However, the 2022 allocation of 90 scholarships is the highest recipient count in recent times.Acting Chief Education Officer at the Ministry of Education and Youth, Dr Kasan Troupe was the guest speaker at the event.