A group of students from the Sandy Bank Primary school in Treasure Beach was recently granted scholarships to pursue high school eductaion.

The scholarships to the south St. Elizabeth-based students arose from their performances in the last Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT) and were awarded by the Treasure Beach Foundation.

One full scholarship was awarded to Mederana Williams, the top GSAT performer from the school. She is now at Hampton School in Malvern, St. Elizabeth

Half scholarships were awarded to Adrian Dixon (Black River High), Donald Abrahams (STETHS), Dave Lloyd (Munro) and Pierce Taylor (Manchester High).

For Karen Kennedy, president of the Treasure Beach Foundation, the high number of students doing well in the GSAT presented a rather intriguing challenge - coming up with enough funds to reward as many of them as possible.

"We had asked the school to give us 10 finalists and we were going to select three out of those but there were so many students that were good that we ended up selecting five," she explained.

Faced with that challenge, the foundation settled on a formula which saw the highest achiever being granted a full scholarship (covering all school fees, books, uniforms, transportation and lunch), and the others having half their expenses paid.

Additionally, each of the five students has been given a laptop computer. And in a unique challenge to the scholarship winners, each of them has had to give a commitment to tutor another student from the community who is not doing as well academically.

"We want them to pass on knowledge to someone who is less fortunate or who is having trouble with some subjects," Kennedy explained.

Karen and Peter Kennedy, natives of the United States, first came to Treasure Beach 20 years ago and, in 1990, established their own villa in Treasure Beach. This scholarship programme, the Kennedys say, is their way of giving back to the community. A community, they acknowledge, that has been very good to them, but which is facing challenging times with noticeable declines in fishing and farming.