Blazing Burgundy: NCU awards top Mass Comm student
TWENTY-ONE-YEAR-OLD final year student of Northern Caribbean University (NCU) Sanasha Pearson was recently declared the university’s top mass communication student and was robed with the Department of Communication Studies’ (DCS) burgundy jacket.
Like the green jacket awarded golf’s Masters winners, the burgundy blazer is a symbol of prestige that inducts the wearer into an exclusive club of high achievers. Pearson will keep it for a year then hand it over to next year’s top student.
Pearson, who has a cumulative GPA of 3.54 and who has demonstrated exemplary involvement in the university and the community, was named on April 10 — the first of the two-day communication symposium and Lignum Vitae Film Festival on the NCU main campus in Mandeville. She won from a field of five candidates.
“I am extremely grateful and I must thank the persons who voted for me,” said an elated Pearson. “This is the result of hard work and determination throughout the year and so I am truly thankful. I will be representing the department as its ambassador and I can assure everyone that DCS will be represented to the best of my ability.”
In addition to the jacket, Pearson received a cash prize of $20,000 and an international trip funded by the department.
“DCS has put particular significance on this area of its work in preparing quality students,” said Dr Marilyn Anderson, Dean of the College of Humanities, Behavioural and Social Sciences.
“We strive for excellence and therefore groom the students and see to it that the end product does not only reflect academic achievements, but the all-roundedness of the student, so that upon graduation and entry into the world of work, he/she will be the product that is sought after as exceptional,” she added.
This was the second staging of the annual symposium. It was held under the theme: ‘Modern media influencing public policy and opinion’ and included presentations from actor Paul Campbell, professor Hopeton Dunn and former Television Jamaica general manager Kay Osborne, who gave the keynote address.
The donning of the burgundy blazer is in its second year.
