HAMMERSMITH, Trelawny — Come September, Hammersmith Prep School’s top-performing student in this year’s Primary Exit Profile (PEP) exam Paris Carey will be heading to Canada to commence her secondary school studies at the Strathcona-Tweedsmuir School (STS), after becoming the first recipient of the new International Pathways Programme scholarship launched at her school.

According to Michel Shah, founder of Hammersmith Prep in Trelawny in 2012, the international pathways programme is the fruit of the Mas Foundation which was recently set up “both here and in Canada to support students who have been working hard to be able to have international opportunities”.

“What we have put in place is a pathway for students to do high school abroad through partnerships with private and independent schools abroad. And these are sponsored, multi-year scholarships. So the first recipient was Paris. She will be studying at the Strathcona-Tweedsmuir School in Canada,” Shah told the Observer West, following her school’s graduation exercise held at the Iberostar Hotel last Sunday.

“The school is going to cover 75 per cent and the MAS Foundation will cover the other 25 per cent.”

MAS is the initials for Michel Andria Shah, and also means ‘more’ in Spanish.

Shah noted that Paris passed her PEP exams for her first choice, Westwood High School for girls, but she and her parents have opted for taking up the scholarship to study abroad.

She added that since it was founded a decade ago, the Trelawny-based prep school has been consistently churning out students to the top high schools, such as Westwood, Cornwall College, Munroe, Mount Alvernia, among others.

However, she underscored that some of the local schools do not offer the extra-curricular activities available at some of their international counterparts.

“We want to recognise that some of the extra-curricular activities that the children are interested in, we don’t have them here, so we want to open up international pathways to give them those opportunities as well,” she said.

“The MAS Foundation, Strathcona-Tweedsmuir School, and the Carey’s will collaborate to ensure the success of this pilot programme.”

She explained that, upon completion of high school, Carey will be provided the opportunity to do her tertiary studies in Canada as well.

“Upon completion, the child will have options. The foundation will continue to suppprt the child, continue to look for opportunities. If there are opportunities for the child to stay they will have that access. It’s not just a place and go, its an ongoing programme, where the foundation continues to support the child while she is there and continues to look for other opportunities for them beyond high school,” Shah said.

She added that the MAS Foundation is currently working with other international partners to extend similar opportunities to more students.

“When the cohort comes in we talk with the parents and make sure it is a good fit for them, and obviously the students have to compete for the top spot here to qualify for the spots as well,” explained the Hammersmith Prep founder.

Head of STS, Carol Grant-Watt, who joined Sunday’s school-leaving ceremony virtually, welcomed Carey to her school.

“The STS family is so excited to welcome Paris Carey and her mom to Alberta, Canada, in September 2022,” she said. Paris is expected to be accompanied by her mother to Canada to ensure she gets settled in.

Carey had mixed emotions about taking up the scholarship in Canada.

“Thinking about leaving Jamaica is pretty sad because I have family members and friends who I’m going to miss. And I’m leaving Hammersmith where I have a close relationship with the school. Going overseas too is also a great advantage because in Jamaica, we have too many tests and getting a good education in Jamaica is pretty hard. So going overseas will be easier for me to get a scholarship and a great chance for me to learn more about overseas and exploring the world because my dream is actually to travel the world,” she told the Observer West.

Shah told the Observer West that, after a decade of providing sterling educational offerings to the school, come September, she will be encouraging every student to participate “in a sustainability and environmental development programme because that’s the idea we really want to spread to our community”.

“We had 10 years to learn and now we want to move forward. In the first 10 years most of it rested on me and now we have broadened the approach with the foundation to incorporate the community more and we have brought on international partners to help us to move this forward. So now we have a number of international partners interested in supporting us to help elevate the experience of education for our children,” she added.