AT age 18, Marc-Andre Allen finds himself in a position unusual for most high school students his age. “I’m in a delicious dilemma,” the Titchfield High School head boy said, in reference to the five scholarships offered to him by top universities in the United States.

In fact, one of the scholarships – valued at more than US$56,000 from the University of Chicago – is, according to A-QuEST conceptualiser and instructor Dr Dennis Minott, the largest ever non-military scholarship awarded.

“In other words, it’s larger than Rana Smalling’s scholarship last year,” Minott said.

Rana, a former Hampton High School student, last year won a scholarship to the University of Chicago valued at just over US$54,000. Rana, then 18, won the richest ever non-military scholarship, and told the Daily Observer then that she wanted to become a forensic scientist because her country desperately needed this particular skill.

This year, Marc-Andre’s scholarship from the same university has topped Rana’s. In fact, Marc-Andre is among more than 80 other A-QuEST students who have bagged more than 300 scholarships for top colleges in the United States valued at a record J$1 billion in total. “One boy has 11 [scholarships], some people have four and five,” Minott told the Sunday Observer.

A-QuEST is an academic group primarily aimed at preparing students for colleges in North America, by preparing them for the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), which is used to assess college applicants in the United States. Additionally, students are taught time management, integration into other cultures and are guided through the complexities of the application process.

“They are Jamaicans who work like beasts,” Minott said of the scholarship winners.

The Sunday Observer spoke with five of those ‘beasts’, who came across as quite charming young people, by the way, and they were understandably pleased with themselves. They have worked hard, it is paying off, and they feel good.

Marc-Andre, for example, received a whopping US$577,000 in scholarships from five schools, and is currently on an all-expenses-paid visit to two of these institutions.

“I have not yet made a decision as I am still weighing the options, but I suspect I will go for the highest offer because these are all very good schools,” Allen said of offers to Bates College, Macalester College, Wesleyan University, University of Chicago and Randolph College.

Even though A-QuEST has seen scholarship offers totalling hundreds of millions over its existence, Minott attributes this record $1 billion in scholarship offers to a number of things, including the networking among the students.

“There is a very deep understanding of what is involved, they [the students] go at leadership and they go at academics,” Minott said. In recent times, Minott said, A-QuEST has undertaken an extensive writing programme, aimed at “teaching young people to write well”. This, he said, has helped students to do better on application essays.

Additionally, students have come up with different ways of packaging their college applications.

“So you don’t just say you got a distinction in music, you play a snippet of the piece [on video],” Minott explained. Also, whereas in the past students would spend only about six months in A-QuEST, they are now spending up to four years, Minott said, at no additional cost, as the programme now requires that they enter from fourth form and stay until upper sixth form.

Marc-Andre and the other students have benefited from all that. And while Marc-Andre has not yet made a decision on the institution he will attend, he told the Sunday Observer that he wants “to go to a school that offers a broad-based liberal education that would enable me to come back to Jamaica and contribute”.

Unlike Marc-Andre, Shenae Bell, 18, the Montego Bay High School alumna who now goes to the Mannings School, needs no convincing. Her mind is already made up – not that she didn’t have options.

“I got three full scholarships,” Shenae said. “(One) for Wesleyan University valued at $22,000, Vassar College (valued) at $44,000 and Amherst College (valued) at $49,700.” She has decided to go to Amherst “because it is one of the best liberal arts colleges out there”. With that out of the way, Shenae is both eager and apprehensive about going off for “my first, first time”, living away from home. She admitted that leaving her family is a bit daunting.

But the bubbly-sounding teen’s concerns go deeper.

“Racism – I’ve been doing some research and I hear it’s been a prevalent problem,” Shenae said, adding that she is confident that it is a challenge she can overcome.

But the Mannings School head boy, 19-year-old Jayvan Mitchell, is looking beyond the challenges and can actually see the end.

“I am looking to graduate in the top one per cent of my class,” Jayvan said. “I really am looking forward to doing exceptionally well there.”

Jayvan got a US$50,000 scholarship for Wesleyan University in Connecticut, and was on the waiting list for another Connecticut school, Yale, but has decided not to wait in light of the

Wesleyan offer.

So, how does one get a $50,000 scholarship?

“It’s a combination of everything,” Jayvan said. “A comprehensive picture of the student. The school is very selective. They basically give you the amount of money you need because it’s hard to get in,” he said. In his 2005 CXCs, he received eight distinctions, and has been doing well in his CAPE subjects as well.

Jayvan, a Spanish enthusiast, hopes to visit Spain on Wesleyan’s ‘study abroad programme’. But for now, he will be travelling to Wesleyan on Wednesday to get a feel of the school

and the community, on an all-expenses-paid trip,

of course.

Like Jayvan, 19-year-old Cher Griffith wants to take advantage of the study abroad programme at whichever school she chooses. Cher, who has overcome a tremendous challenge to achieve, has heard from two schools so far and is already very pleased.

Cher should have applied to college in the Christmas of 2004, but was in a serious car accident that summer.

“I had six surgeries and I had a bone infection. I broke my leg, arm, nose, I broke my face, (and) my pelvis. I was really broken up,” Cher said.

After undergoing physiotherapy and other treatments, she was able to apply for colleges last Christmas.

“I’m back full force and look, scholarships!” Cher said. “Wow! Wow! They’re purchasing an insurance policy for me at the school,” she added, while excitedly browsing the package offer from Middlebury College in Vermont. “Wow! The things came so suddenly,” she said.

Middlebury has also offered her a laptop grant, travel assistance, and she will pay only $1,500, while the estimated aid package is $49,710, which includes a grant, a job offer and a loan.

“It’s need-based aid, 100 per cent of demonstrated need. Apparently this is how much I need. A lot,” Cher said.

Her second offer of a $46,755 aid package is from

Mount Holyoke, which she calls a “really good liberal

arts college”. Meleicia Wright, the Montego Bay High School alumna, who is now

enrolled in the International Baccalaureate programme at United World College in Wales, United Kingdom, has received scholarship offers from four schools and acceptance

at Oxford.

“This is the fruit of my labour and proof that I don’t get up and go to church every Sunday for nothing, not that I would be if I didn’t get scholarships,” Meleicia said.

“Princeton is the prime contender now, with US$48,000,” Meleicia said. “Swathmore, Mount Holyoke, Macalester, they’ve been more than generous – one of them would ask me to pay maybe $200,” Wright said, adding that even though scholarships are nothing new to her, this time was overwhelming.

“I’ve almost always been on a scholarship, but college is different because it’s four years and it’s when you’re at the age where you could work and scrape,” she said. It helps too, that this strong believer in God is surrounded by people who are going to Ivy League schools. And she will be jetting off to one herself this Fall. She just needs to “send the letter [to Princeton] to put my mind at ease”.

The 19-year-old said her method of doing well is no secret at all.

“I work,” she said with conviction. “I have this internal drive to keep on striving. It really does help to know that your God is available to carry you through.”

Meleicia, who, at the time of the interview, spoke by telephone from the United Kingdom where it was about 1:00 am, said she had decided to wake up and study for upcoming exams because she felt guilty after spending the day celebrating her university offers. Additionally, those results would prove to Princeton that she’s really worth it.

“When you have a set goal in mind, unless you move, it will not come.”

Like Marc-Andre, Shenae, Jayvan, and Cher, Meleicia paid tribute to Minott for his guidance and support. While she was in A-QuEST for just about a year, Wright said she has been receiving guidance from Minott via telephone and e-mail since.

“Yes, I expected to get a scholarship to get into a good school. I knew that Dr Minott would get me through,” Shenae said.