Two University of Technology students got significant help in realising their dreams after being awarded the Jamaica Observer Food Awards scholarship on Tuesday.

The elated students — Cadeene Alisha Chin-See, 28, and Simone Coley, 23 — were chosen from a group of five finalists who all demonstrated a combination of stellar academic performance, future promise and financial need.

“Getting this scholarship really boosts my self-confidence in furthering my goals,” said an excited Chin-See, who also says she has wanted to be a part of the food and beverage industry since leaving high school.

Tuition for the UTech food and beverage programme is J$339,180. Add to that the cost of books and other miscellaneous expenses, and some students may find the cost of participation prohibitive.

“A scholarship like this,” says Garcia Imoru, a financial aid officer at the University, “makes the difference for two students being able to complete their degree programmes and not being able to. That’s an important difference.”

A difference that Coley, one of the scholarship winners, knows all too well. Three years ago, she had to interrupt her studies due to the mounting expenses incurred by tuition and rent.

“I went back to Mandeville to work for a year in order to afford the next year,” she said. The costs for the upcoming year, she says, would have also proved insurmountable had it not been for the receipt of this scholarship.

The scholarship covers tuition and the cost of books and comes from the proceeds of the Jamaica Observer Food Awards, slated for May 27 this year at Devon House in Kingston.

Financial aid officer Imoru also notes that the Food Awards scholarship is the only one of its kind that targets students at the University’s food and beverage programme. It’s also the only scholarship listed by a national newspaper in the Caribbean.

The scholarship’s aim is to help ensure that some of the promising talent emerging in our food-industry culture are able to fulfil their potential and contribute to the industry in some meaningful way.

One of Chin-See’s main goals, for instance, is to create meals specifically catering to persons with life-threatening illnesses. A diabetic herself, she is committed to experimenting with food substitutions that would retain the integrity of a certain meal while not posing a debilitating threat to someone who is, say, diabetic.

It’s this creativity and potential, says Ed Khoury, CEO of the Jamaica Observer, that motivates the paper’s continued support of the University of Technology’s food and beverage students through its scholarship.

“When you see individuals who are multifaceted and talented despite their challenges, and are able to cope and give back — when you see that potential, it’s hard not to acknowledge these two,” he said, speaking of the two award recipients.