GoodHeart |Chritine-Amelia Seville’s engineering dream takes flight

Tuition expenses will not be a concern for Chritine-Amelia Seville when she begins university this month. The University of Technology, Jamaica (UTech)-bound student is among five recipients of the JPS Foundation scholarships, each valued at $500,000, to pursue engineering studies at the tertiary level.

“This scholarship was so important because I needed the assistance in order to start my academic journey,” shared Seville, an Ardenne High graduate who’s all set to read for a degree in industrial engineering at UTech. The 19-year-old is thankful for the financial intervention from the foundation.

“My father is the sole provider for me and my brother, who is about to start high school,” she revealed. Her mother died from pancreatic cancer six years ago, leaving her father to support the single-parent household. “As he now has more responsibilities for my sibling, the financial demands will be way more than before,” she added.

Christopher Seville, the deaf family patriarch, works as a teacher’s aide at the Jamaica Association for the Deaf.

His daughter said that the Power Up East-West Power (EWP) Scholarship for which Seville was shortlisted “will make my academic journey so much easier without placing that pressure on him, and allow me also to pursue what I want to”.

Seville was speaking in an interview after the JPS Foundation Power Up Scholarship Awards ceremony wrapped up at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel.

The late-morning honours presentation saw 28 scholarship recipients, a mix of university and high-school beginners, gathered in the hotel’s ballroom to be feted and awarded scholarships or grants to offset tuition costs.

Launched in 2024, the JPS Foundation Power Up Scholarship Programme this year expended $11 million in scholarships and grants combined.

In addition to five UTech engineering students, one student from the College of Agriculture, Science and Education (CASE) received $500,000 for the Power Up Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Grant.

Meanwhile, 10 students were awarded $60,000 each for the Power Up Community Renewal Grant.

Under the Power Up STEM Tertiary Scholarship, three tertiary students received $400,000, and three teachers’ college students received $400,000.

Lastly, the JPS VOLTS PEP Scholarship provided three top PEP students, one from each county, $60,000 individually. These latter scholarships resulted from direct contributions made by JPS employees in supporting new high-school entrants.

The tertiary beneficiaries will be attending UTech; CASE; The University of the West Indies, Mona; and a number of teacher’s colleges across the island.

Seville, who learnt sign language at seven months old and now interprets for her father when they are out, aspires to work at the Norman Manley International Airport after completing her studies.

“I chose to study industrial engineering based on my internship at the airport last year. It opened my eyes to a lot of things that happen behind the scenes in ensuring the efficiency of processes and systems, and how people and machinery and the environment have to work together to ensure things run smoothly,” she explained of her two-month-long experience in the electromechanical and heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) department.

JPS President and Chief Executive Officer Hugh Grant celebrated the significance of what the recipients had achieved.

“You were selected from over 1,000 submissions the foundation received this year, so that alone is impressive,” he told the awardees during his address to the room of recipients, their family members, and JPS executives and volunteer staff.

“Education is the differentiator that will take you where you want to go,” he added.

“Growing up in Portmore and taking the overcrowded quarter-million bus each morning and standing on the step to go to Campion,” Grant reflected on his life’s arc of coming from a working-class background to his college pursuits in North America, and eventual elevation to a senior role at Consolidated Edison in New York before returning home to lead JPS.

“Determination and education will open the doors for you,” he added.

Meanwhile, Assistant Chief Education Officer in the Ministry of Education, Skills, Youth and Information, Dr Tamika Benjamin, hailed the JPS Foundation’s focus on STEM education.

She also encouraged the parents and wards to support their children and “to remain engaged as they continue their studies and be present for the challenges they will face. Their worth is not determined by the examination results they will achieve over time, but the character they develop”.

goodheart@gleanerjm.com