MANDEVILLE, Manchester — For 12 year-old Deja-Lee Thompson, it was another triumphant achievement.

A past Jamaica Cultural Development Commission (JCDC) festival princess for Manchester, Thompson was among Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT) awardees who recently received a back-to-school head start through bursaries from the Jamaica Police Co-operative Credit Union.

More than fifty students including two tertiary recipients, were honoured during the awards ceremony at the Golf View Hotel.

The awardees were selected from Manchester, Kingston, Montego Bay, Portmore, and St Mary where the Co-op has its branches.

Thompson, who earned her place at deCarteret College with a 100 per cent pass in Science and Social Studies, 99 per cent in Mathematics and Language Arts, and 9 out of 12 in Communication Task, has also been making an impact in the community.

JCDC Parish Manager Vivien Morris-Brown told the Jamaica Observer Central that she is the second JCDC princess to serve the parish, having copped the title in 2013 and the first and only regional (Manchester, Clarendon, St Elizabeth) princess to date.

The Festival Prince and Princess Pageant builds the leadership skills of children and allows the youngsters to be cultural ambassadors, as the winners are requested for performances and motivational talks, appear as official guests at JCDC functions, and carry out projects which seek to provide solutions to an issue that impacts children, organisers say.

Thompson’s other achievements include honourary mention in the National Mathematics Olympiad organised by the University of the West Indies this year; second place in the Manchester Lay Magistrates Essay Competition; recipient of the principal’s award from the Mt St Joseph Preparatory School for her GSAT achievement; and first place islandwide in the primary category for the Scientific Research Council’s National Oratory Competition in 2014.

She told the Observer Central that she is eyeing a career in the sciences or journalism. Her own drive to succeed is fueled by seeing the efforts of her parents Sergeant Karen Bernard – Thompson, who is attached to Mandeville Police Station, and Deputy Superintendent Errol Thompson, based at the National Police College (formerly the Police Training School).

“I have achieving parents and I want to grow up to achieve like them,” she said.

Speaking at the Police Co-operative Credit Union Awards Ceremony, Minister of National Security and Manchester Central Member of Parliament Peter Bunting noted that good parenting is a critical element of the solution to steering children in the right direction.

As such, he said, the national security ministry, in collaboration with relevant stakeholders, has been holding parenting campaigns and sponsoring workshops.

“We have to connect the dots…,” Bunting said, adding that the police many times are struggling with the outcomes and failures at many different levels of society.

Bunting said that the Jamaica Police Co-operative Credit Union, which is in its 60th year, started with only eleven members. He commended its efforts to impact youth and education as it continues to grow as an organisation.

” For those of us who have chosen to serve in political leadership, functions like these serve as reminders of why the Vision 2030 plan to make Jamaica the place of choice to live, work, raise families and do business must be pursued at all cost, especially in the interest of this generation of achievers…,” he said.

— Alicia Sutherland