Campion College honours outstanding alumni
Published:Tuesday | January 30, 2018 | 12:00 AMKrysta Anderson
The Campion College Alumni Association (CCAA) hosted its annual Hall of Fame Dinner, on Friday, January 26, at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel, New Kingston, with grand fanfare. The red carpet was rolled out for specially invited guests, as they mingled during the cocktail hour, many engaging in conversations with the three inductees.
Proven Wealth Management provided a photo booth and a 360-style camera, delighting those who chose to participate, before everyone took their seats in the exquisitely decorated ballroom, and once gathered, notes of nostalgia filled the room after they were asked to stand for the school song, played by the current school band.
Past student Adam Jones served as the master of ceremonies for the evening, entertaining the attentive crowd with his witty and comical banter. Andrew Walcott, president of the CCAA thanked everyone for supporting the event stating, "You will be helping a student get through high school, right now."
After a delightful dinner, it was time to get into the meat of the matter: awarding the three inductees.
Nigel Sutton
Sutton walked through the gates of Campion College in 1975 showing great leadership skills, excelling in the field of rugby. As stated in his citation, "While at Campion, he was the youngest member for the Kingston Rugby Club of that era." Enlisting in United States Air Force and later Navy, he retired as one of the best in his fields.
He took his charisma all the way to the business arena, where he works in security and foreign affairs. In his 'thank you' speech, he shared that he felt blessed to receive the honour, humbled by the esteemed group of inductees, he was happy to be among a brotherhood and sisterhood that instilled strong leadership to give the future graduates a chance.
Gregory Pullen
Pullen learnt that he was being inducted into the CCAA Hall of Fame, on the night of the dinner. Pullen had placed Campion College as his second choice of schools, with Knox College as his first, because, according to his citation: "He wanted to get as far away from his parents as possible."
Entering the school in 1979, he displayed many talents, one of which was avoiding physical education. His citation stated that he is probably the only Campionite with the distinction of never taking a single PE class, and yet never getting any detention time for that offence.
Knowing his career path from the start, school became a rite of passage. He joined the family business, learning all he could about business and electronics.
He took the telecommunications world by storm and currently sits on the boards of many companies and corporations. In his address, he stated that he was overwhelmed. "It's very important for us to return to society's cause," he said.
Angel Aloma
The epitome of living in service of others, Aloma was born in Cuba to a Cuban father and Jamaica mother. An avid lover of academia, Campion College was the perfect fit for the young scholar.
The only blunder on his record, according to his citation, " ... was the one occasion in first form when the then headmaster Father Samuel Carter (later to become Archbishop Carter), had to instruct him in the way of the cane by giving him the well known 'six of the best'."
In Aloma's own words, "Father Carter had a powerful right arm and it cured me of ever getting in trouble again." Aside from that, he was a model student.
His deep Catholic faith, nurtured by his family and instilled by the teachings of Campion College saw him leaning towards the priesthood. But the apple of his eye back then, now his wife, Denise, changed all that.
His true calling would be education, and he graduated from University of Windsor in Ontario, Canada with a bachelor of arts degree, and a master's in romance languages in 1972. Upon his return to Jamaica, he applied for a teaching job at Campion. His citation states, "He was the first Campionite to become an educator and he came straight back to help build the school."
Teaching Spanish, general paper to sixth form, and drama, he became head of the department for Spanish and created the School's Challenge Quiz team. In 2001, he received a call from Food For The Poor that he couldn't refuse. Now executive director, Aloma said in his acceptance speech that the honour really humbled him. "I feel like there are little sacrifices in doing what you love to do. The person who said if you love what you do, you don't work a day in you life, lied. But there's such a joy in my work, joy in service," he said.