On Sunday, the RuJohn Foundation (RF) celebrated its 2015 scholarship recipients at the formal residence of Jamaica’s Prime Minister, Vale Royal. The afternoon was filled with motivational talks offered by a range of influential persons. To name a few, the speakers included: the Most Honourable, Portia Simpson-Miller, Mrs Ingrid Bachelor, Mr Stephen Vasciannie and Mr Patrick Prendergast. Finger food, delightful conversations, touching testimonials and giveaways, made this occasion one to remember.

Our Most Honourable, Prime Minister Portia Simpson-Miller, gave insight to the young intellectuals. During her encouraging discourse she said, “…keep on telling yourself that ‘I’m gonna get it, I will do it, I know I can.’ Certainly, you are the future leaders of this country… the next Minister of Education, or Tourism… or the next Prime Minister of Jamaica… It is not impossible, it is possible… but do your best, excel… you can achieve anything in life that you wish to achieve. But I pray that you achieve everything that is positive, that can lead to the prosperity of the members of your families, and of your communities. Don’t let anything get you down…”

2013 RF scholarship recipient and 2014 Governor General Youth Awardee, Joel Nomdarkham sat down with teenAGE for a little bit. He believes that the RuJohn Foundation has helped to shape his character. He also said, “I have been involved with RuJohn for quite a while, even before I got the scholarship. It has been nothing but an amazing experience. I’ve had the privilege of working with celebrities… I’ve learned how to volunteer more, and as such I’ve been a part of a lot of voluntarism projects. I’ve also taken on a few for myself. So RuJohn has really helped me where that is concerned.”

2015 RF scholarship recipient, Tina Reneir also had a few things to say to teenAGE. She shared, “The RuJohn Foundation has been supporting me since 2014. The experience has been tremendous. It not only emphasizes the importance of academic excellence, but also the power of voluntarism towards nation building.

Surely, the RuJohn Foundation has been doing effective work. They have impacted many lives through cultivating young minds. Truly, they also believe that every TEEN matters.