In what has become a highly anticipated calendar event for the children of Manpower and Maintenance Services Limited’s (MMS) employees, 30 students who will be heading to secondary schools following placement from the Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT) were Friday presented with gift certificates, cash awards and gift packages courtesy of MMS, its clients, associates and corporate partners to assist with their back-to-school preparations.

Manpower and Maintenance Services CEO Audrey Hinchcliffe explained that the annual GSAT Awards presentation “was born out of our commitment to alleviate some of the stresses that our employees face at this time each year with back-to-school demands”.

As is now the custom, all students received bursaries from MMS, gift bags from both Grace Foods and Services, as well as Lasco Distributors, while some received gift certificates from Jamaica National Building Society as well as starter accounts from First Heritage Co-operative Credit Union. Other contributions were also made by PriceSmart, the Guardian Group, and communications company FLOW.

The students were encouraged to excel as they enter a new chapter in their lives by the University of the West Indies lecturer in educational policy, planning and leadership, and founder of the Caribbean Leadership Re-Imagination Initiative Dr Canute Thompson.

“Excellence is a journey, and each person who achieves it, or does excellently, is focused. Their minds are occupied with thinking about excellence,” Dr Thompson told the students.

He said, while the journey for some “may begin with obstacles, diversions and wrong turns, you can still achieve excellence”. He further encouraged the students to become multi-skilled, to “work to stay ahead, but never become comfortable”, to watch the company they keep and never begrudge others for what they may have.

Deputy chief executive officer of MMS Garth Hinchcliffe said the awards presentation has become “such a tradition that this year, one of the top achievers, Steven Wedderburn Jr, is following in the footsteps of his father, Steven Wedderburn Snr, who was an MMS awardee following the Common Entrance Examination in 1998”.

“We are very pleased that we have been able to sustain this initiative and that it continues to be of some benefit to the Manpower family,” he added.

Steven Wedderburn Jr will be attending Kingston College in September.

Since its inception, the GSAT Awards, which is the flagship event of the Manpower Foundation, has assisted hundreds of students to prepare for entering secondary school. The awards presentation was held at MMS’s Eureka Road headquarters in Kingston.