BASSETERRE, ST. KITTS, September 2, 2024 (MMS-SKN) — The eight 2024 awardees of the St. Kitts Nevis Anguilla Trading and Development Company (TDC) Limited’s Warren C. Tyson Memorial Scholarship Programme, along with TDC officials, were taken by surprise when a former scholarship holder showed up unannounced at their induction ceremony on Saturday August 31.
When the induction ceremony started shortly after 9:00 a.m. at the TDC Training Room, Fort Street, Basseterre, TDC’s Chairman and CEO Mr Earle Kelly while telling them that the programme would have produced a number of persons now holding significant positions in the country, asked them if any of them was aware that the Prime Minister of the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis the Hon Terrance Drew was a past scholarship holder.
The eight awardees, along with the eight runners up appeared lost, until one of them, Master Nazeem Alexander, formerly of the Dean Glasford Primary School in St. Peter’s, who has been admitted to the Washington Archibald High School, raised his hand and said that he was aware.
Happy that the awardee was aware, he jokingly promised him a prize. But the prize was quickly withdrawn when the young student was asked how he got to know. His answer was: “The Prime Minister came to our school and told us.”
As part TDC’s 50th Anniversary celebrations, the company had rolled out the ‘Warren C. Tyson Memorial Scholarship Public Primary Schools Tour’ where selected former scholarship holders were asked to make presentations to their alma mater. Dr Drew made his presentation to the Deane Glasford Primary School in St. Peter’s on May 24, last year.
Unknown to all present, Prime Minister Dr Drew having been made aware of the induction ceremony, decided to attend without informing them. Not sure of the exact location of the presentation, he arrived shortly after the inductees would have received their certificates, and he was welcomed by Mr Earle Kelly.
“You didn’t expect me to show up, but the scholarship means a lot to me, then and now, so it gives me great pleasure to be dropping in for a few minutes, and say a few words,” the Honourable Prime Minister told the awardees, their parents and the TDC officials. He informed them that he was inducted in the Warren C. Tyson Memorial Scholarship in 1989, after having been admitted to the then Basseterre Junior High School.
He said he was interviewed by a team that Included then Chairman, Mr Michael King, Mr Michael Morton, Mrs Al Powell and a fourth person whose name he could not remember.
“I was nervous and I thought I had a good interview with them, and about three or four weeks later, the postman said he had a letter for my grandmother, as I used to live with my grandmother then,” said the Prime Minister. “So I had the letter and she asked me to open it and read it. I read the letter a few times, and of course I was extremely elated.”
Dr Drew told his attentive audience: “Back then the scholarship meant a lot, more than now in the sense of economic help and empowerment. Back then we did not have any school programmes to give free books, so the scholarship then provided me with all the books. I was one of the few who had all the books.”
While on the scholarship programme, he would get attached to the company where he was exposed to a different type of education, which included education in a professional and business world, something he still feels that a student should get at school. They learnt how to answer a phone in a professional and business environment, how to greet someone and how to help someone who needs help.
“All those things I got training right here at TDC,” stated the Prime Minister. “That to me was possibly the most important thing I gleaned of the scholarship, becoming a professional, and getting that type of education where people pay a lot of money for it later on in their lives, and companies pay a lot of money to train people in those basic skills.”
Addressing the parents, he told them that when their children have to come to work, they should not to let them give any excuses, saying that he sometimes used to give excuses on Saturday mornings saying that he had football or basketball. But while those are also important, it is more important to go to TDC where they learn the soft skills, which would help them to develop their personality so that by the time they leave the programme, they would be in a good stead and they would have learnt a lot.
“TDC, you have been doing well,” said the Hon Prime Minister. “This has been a tremendous programme. I came this morning to reinforce the fact that this programme is an excellent programme. TDC, kudos to you and I wish you of course, all the success, now and in the future.”
He ended by saying: “To all the students, do well, take it seriously, excel, become a good example of what a good young person should be – no extra pressure, we just want you to do well. Do well and be a good citizen of St. Kitts and Nevis, and I have confidence because I see parents here. TDC is here – a good environment that will nurture you and see you have all that is required – the rest is up to you, you make sure that you take advantage and make time to do what you are supposed to do. Thank you all, and congratulations.”