STUDENTS TAKE ON THE WORLDWITH HELP FROM LYFORD CAY FOUNDATIONS

THE Lyford Cay Foundations has announced the award of two grants for $5,000 each to St John’s College and Aquinas College to assist students in defraying the cost of their travel expenses to the London Round of the World’s Scholars Cup.

Having already found success at the Nassau Round of the competition, St John’s College and Aquinas College have sent 21 and 20 students respectively to compete in the Global Round in London, England from July 24 to August 4 under the theme “Reconstructing the Past”.

The World’s Scholars Cup is an international team academic competition in which more than 15,000 students from over 65 countries participate each year.

Local competitions are held early in the year with qualifying teams moving to several global rounds held throughout the world.

The competition culminates with a Championship Round at Yale University.

Dr Nicola Virgill-Rolle, executive director of Lyford Cay Foundations, had the opportunity to view a portion of the Nassau round.

She said: “It was uplifting to see so many students excited about academic challenges, analytical questions, essays and debate.

Students were excelling at working as a team.”

In 2017, students from Aquinas College were able to compete in the World’s Scholars Cup both in Barcelona, Spain and at Yale University; they also competed in Sydney, Australia in 2018, winning awards for their achievements in both years.

It is also not the first year that St John’s College will be sending a team to compete at the international level, and the school is happy to be able to send a team again following the pandemic.

Lyford Cay Foundations vice chair Sarah Farrington, who also serves as chair of the Grants Committee, was on hand to meet representatives from both schools.

She said: “When Lyford Cay Foundations learned about this amazing competition, we wanted to help students in The Bahamas make this opportunity a reality. We are honoured to assist.”

Since 1969, Lyford Cay Foundations has disbursed more than $50m in the Bahamian community through its programmes which are aimed at providing learning opportunities for Bahamian children, young adults, families and communities who will benefit the most.