Friday, June 23, 2006

Participants in  the Junior Achievement Programme
(left to right) Nickolas DaCosta, Staci Scott, Cordell
Gutierrez and Geoffrey Grizzel, have demonstrated
business acumen and the ability to give oral
presentations, earning them the right to attend the
Canadian National Junior Achievement Conference
in August.

Four of the top eight participants from this year's Junior Achievement (JA) Programme in the Cayman Islands are from Cayman Brac.

Staci Scott, Geoffrey Grizzel, Cordell Gutierrez and Nickolas DaCosta have qualified for an all-expense paid trip to the Canadian National Junior Achievement Conference (CANJAC), along with the four qualifiers from Grand Cayman and two chaperones.

These eight competed for the privilege against over three hundred participants, thirty of whom were in the Brac programme.

JA is a non-profit organization that uses hands-on experiences to help young people understand the economics of life.

It is a project of the Rotary Club of Grand Cayman Central and the Cayman Islands Chamber of Commerce. On the Brac, it is primarily sponsored by the Rotary Club of Cayman Brac.

The annual CANJAC conference provides an annual forum to further educate high school students about business, and to recognize outstanding performance in JA programmes. It will take place this year in Carleton University in Ontario, Canada, in August.

At the 2005 conference, over two hundred participants from all corners of the globe come together for a week of intensive business discussion and personal growth.

"I am really looking forward to being exposed to that kind of knowledge and all the different cultures. It will be really fun," said Ms Scott, who was President of the business "CONCH-eras" that was created by the Brac JA participants.

The eight participants attending the conference were judged to give the best oral presentations, out of the twelve who qualified for this round of the programme, on one of three moots questions relating to current issues in the Cayman Islands
One other Brac student, Melody Martin, who was one of these twelve, was awarded Best Vice-President for Human Resources in JA.

"We were pretty sure that at least some of our group would be going to the conference and we were fairly confident in our speech presentations," claimed Ms Scott. "But we couldn't have done it without all our advisors and all their time and effort."

Their advisors - Sue Smartt, Alphonso Gayle, Sandra Solomon, Brian Keith, Valden Scott and Natalya Scott (a previous participant in the programme) - were always patient when listening to them practice.

"They told us how to improve, when to pause and when to give emphasis," said Ms Scott.
"They all did really well. It's quite incredible, when you think of the numbers, that half of the winners were from one company. The four Grand Cayman winners were all from different companies," said Ms Solomon, who is President-Elect of Brac Rotary.

"Almost all the Brac students who participated this year have expressed a desire to come back next year. Plus, there are more who want to join from the younger years. They seem to have realized how much fun it is," she said.

President of JA in the Cayman Islands, Ravi Kapoor, who is a member Rotary Central, and JA Coordinator Joanne Diaz-Berry, who will be one of the chaperones going to Canada, travelled to the Brac Saturday 17 June to give an orientation on the trip to the Brac winners and their parents.

The CANJAC conference takes place from 18 to 25 August. Participants usually enjoy themselves so much, the hard part is trying to get them to come home again, said Mr Kapoor.

nicky@caymannetnews.com

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