THE People’s Republic of China through its embassy in Kingston has donated scholarships valuing $1.1 million to Northern Caribbean University (NCU) to assist five eligible students with the payment of their tuition fees. The embassy has been donating the Chinese Ambassador’s Scholarship for the past four years. Each awardee receives $200,000.

Speaking at a presentation ceremony held September 8, on the NCU Mandeville campus, Chinese Ambassador Chen Daojiang said the scholarships “sowed the seeds of hope for future development of China-Jamaica relations”. He told the scholarship recipients and fellow students they were the future of Jamaica, on whose shoulders rest the important mission of bringing prosperity to Jamaica and building a community with a shared future for mankind together with China.

Ambassador Daojiang said China attaches great importance to educational cooperation and people-to-people exchanges with Jamaica, and will continue to support more Jamaican youths through programmes such as Chinese Government Scholarship and “Chinese Ambassador’s Scholarship”, to play their role as bridges and bonds, and act as the ambassadors for bilateral people-to-people exchanges.

In his remarks, NCU President Professor Lincoln Edwards praised Ambassador Daojiang for continuing the goodwill gesture started by his predecessor. Professor Edwards noted that the donation from China enabled the institution to continue its historic mission of helping students with scarce financial resources to access quality education. He invited other charitable individuals and organisations to play their part in enabling students to attain higher education to improve their quality of life.

Expressing gratitude on behalf of fellow scholarship recipients, Terica Drysdale said the gift of $200,000 for each student will lighten their financial burden, while acknowledging that they were being assisted so they can help others in the future in the quest to improve the human condition in Jamaica and abroad.

Meanwhile, noting that this year’s scholarships benefited students studying STEM disciplines, Professor Edwards said this would contribute to NCU’s prowess in innovation. This is evidenced by the multiplicity of science, technology and business innovation competitions that students from NCU have won.

These include, but are not limited to, the Microsoft Imagine Cup held in Poland in 2010, the International Business Model Competition held in Utah in 2018, four-time winner of the National Business Competition, multiple winners of the Girls in ICT Caribbean Hackathon Competition, and multiple winners of the Scientific Research Council’s National Science and Technology Fair.