US-based Buxton scholar continues to reward academic excellence

Sep 02, 2013 News

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Three more students from the village of Buxton have been added to the growing list of recipients of the Annie Daniels Award for outstanding scholarly performance.
The three students are Okeme Beaton and Rike Semple, who attended the St. Stanislaus College and Bishops’ High School respectively, and Dencia Phillips of Friendship Primary.
Beaton, secured passes in 12 subjects with eight Grade Ones (four distinctions) and four grade twos at this year’s Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) exams, while Semple gained 10 grade one passes (four distinctions) to go along with a grade two. Phillips earned a place at Bishops’ High School with 520 marks at the National Grade Six Assessment.
The Annie Daniels Award is the brainchild of former son of the soil, Distinguished Professor Kerwin Charles, of the University of Chicago, USA, who continues to reward excellence with a monetary donation.
Charles strongly believes that he owes it to the village to give back something to those who have excelled academically, in memory of his grandmother, Mrs. Annie Daniels.
This year’s recipients were presented with their awards by the mother of the donor, Mrs. Paulette Charles, who noted that the woman in whose honour the award is given had been close to children throughout her life in the village, and it is only fitting that she is remembered with something like this.
This year, Beaton received an award that takes care of his first year’s tuition fee at the University of Guyana where he is pursuing studies in economics. Semple who is desirous of pursuing studies for the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE) was presented with cash to take care of the books that she will need, while Phillips was provided with one term’s transportation from Buxton to her school in Georgetown.
This is the seventh year of the award and according to Mrs. Charles, apart from a few, all the previous recipients have gone on to do well academically.  The inaugural recipient, Abike Amsterdam, is certainly blazing a trail.
“The inaugural recipient, Miss Abike Amsterdam, who came in ninth place at the 2007 Grade Six Assessment Examination, at a time when this community was under stress….I don’t want to recall what happened then,” Mrs. Charles told this newspaper.
“Miss Amsterdam is now in the state of Michigan and she is in touch with Kerwin. I’m so proud. She will be entering the Michigan State University as from next week and Kerwin has been extremely touched by the way she is behaving as a student. They keep an active academic link,” Charles disclosed.
This year, the committee that identifies the recipients was forced to make a tough decision because of the exemplary performances of two Buxtonians at the CSEC examinations.
“We said okay, let them write an essay, a short thing saying why they think that they should be a beneficiary of this award.…I think the boy outshone the girl,” Mrs. Charles explained.
Beaton, who wants to be an Economist, told Kaieteur News that he was working towards receiving the award since he was inspired by his sister Shebiki, who was one of the recipients in 2011.
He said that although he plans to achieve a master’s degree in the subject area at an overseas university, after completing studies at UG, he will BE one Buxtonian who will home to help develop his country.
Semple has her sights set on the geo-science area.
Despite the stigma attached to her village, Semple is proud of it and she sees herself as another example of the quality of citizens that it has produced.
“In first form, there was this kind of thinking that, ‘oh, she come from Buxton, she gone want fight me or something’, but then as the years go by, people just laughed it off by saying, ‘y’all don’t trouble she, she from Buxton you know’ . Everybody was just joking about it,” she said with a wide grin on her face.
She explained that even though what was going on around her in her village did affect her as she was growing up, she kept to herself and focused on her “books” and it paid off. This year’s other recipient Dencia Phillips was overwhelmed when she found out that she was awarded a place at the school she had set her sights on.
In fact she was not too surprised because she was doing well in school and had put in the extra studies to ensure her success. She credits her class teacher and her mother who both played integral roles in her achievements.
“Well mommy, if I didn’t want to get up early in the morning, she would come and wake me up, telling me that if I do this now, all of this will end just now,” Phillips said adding that she feels very nervous to now be attending a school in Georgetown.
“But I’m not afraid because I know who I am and I’m representing myself, and I know that God is always with me,” she said.

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