SOME September, Tamara Carroll and Rachel Thwaites of the Montego Bay High School will join the ranks of Jamaican students at United World Colleges overseas.

The two 16-year-old girls were recently awarded scholarships to attend UWC colleges in either Wales or New Mexico in the United States.

They were selected from a group of 40 applicants, and will have the opportunity to study for the International Baccalaureate (IB), a pre-university examination that is recognised and used by more than 400 colleges worldwide.

To qualify for the scholarship, the students had to display aptitude for leadership and community involvement. They were also required to have strong academic records and had to undergo UWC interviews.

Under the IB syllabus, students are obliged to take six subjects from the available groups. These groups include:

* Language A (students’ best language);

* Language B (a modern foreign language);

* Individuals and Society (History, Economics and or Peace studies);

* the Experimental Sciences;

* Mathematics;

* and Other (Art, Music, Theatre Arts or a second subject from the other areas).

The IB also includes a “Theory of Knowledge” course and a research paper.

United World Colleges seek to select ambitious students from 80 countries across the world to prepare them over two years for the transition from high school to university. During that two-year period, candidates are exposed to the “ideals of peace, truth, justice and co-operation” in order to enact global change and improvement.

Since 1973 when the programme was first introduced to Jamaica, 75 local students have benefited. There are now Jamaican students at five of the 11 UWCs.