RECIPIENTS of academic scholarships through the Pocket Rocket Foundation hailed the bursaries as a blessing which will now put their mind at ease and allow them to focus more on education and sport.

Eight student athletes from various high schools were awarded $50,000 to assist with tuition, books, lunch, and transportation each academic year.

The foundation, which is the brain child of two-time Olympic champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, has now assisted 15 student athletes as the first batch of seven, which were awarded scholarships last year, will be retained.

Zinedine Russell, a student of Convent of Mercy Alpha, who has attained 11 Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) subjects with distinctions and two CAPE subjects with distinction by the end of her fifth form year, expressed joy at being awarded the scholarship.

“It is great being a recipient because any little expenses that can be offset is a blessing. I have text books to get for my CAPE exams and they are very expensive.

“I am really happy for this and it will help a lot because now that I don’t have to think about these expenses, I can just go home and study, focus on school and track & field and that way I can excel,” she told the Jamaica Observer at a meet-and-greet at Sagicor’s head office on Thursday.

The 15-year-old also excels in track & field, having represented Jamaica at the Central American and Caribbean age group championships in 2011 and 2013.

Nicholas Haughton, a student of Campion College who was successful in attaining all four CAPE subjects he sat in June, said that the bursary will be a “boost for him going forward”, as he is doing his final year in high school.

The 17-year-old Haughton, who has been a member of Jamaica’s Carifta swim team since 2012, says he is hoping to further his education and swimming career overseas.

“My hope is to attend a divisional school in America and participate in their swim programme because I do have the goal of one day representing Jamaica at the Olympics. So my main choices right now are between the US and Canada,” he declared.

Meanwhile, Shadae Grant of St Jago High is the youngest of the eight recipients at age 12. She expressed delight at being selected and explained that she will be doing her best to “exceed expectations”.

Grant was a member of St Jago’s record-breaking Class Four 4X100-metre relay team at the Boys’ and Girls’ Championship earlier this year.

Fraser-Pryce told reporters that it is always a blessing to give back and she could not have done it without the assistance of a few sponsors.

“I want to say a big shout out to NIKE, GraceKennedy, Digicel, and the Sagicor family for coming on board and assisting us in this venture. Because without them, this wouldn’t be possible, and I think we being able to support our student athlete is huge.

“I hope that next year we will be able to do more because we have retained the previous awardees, so now we have a huge number of student athletes and we are very proud to be able to assist in that area,” said the double sprint champion.