GRANGE HILL, Westmoreland — Grange Hill Primary School grade six student Enyameikie Daley walked away with a six-year scholarship valued at US$3,500 (approximately $546,000) to attend the school of her choice come September after she topped an essay writing competition staged by the United States-based Jamaica Awareness Association of California (JAAC).

“I’m very happy, I’m very proud and I will also continue to work hard to get more,” Daley said in an interview with the Jamaica Observer after her name was announced as the scholarship recipient during a function held at the school on Tuesday.

Daley, whose Grange Hill community has been greatly impacted by crime in recent years, was selected the top entrant after the contestants were given three topics to choose from to write an essay.

“I chose a topic about my community and some problems that young adults are facing. Some problems that…I know they have been going through are teenage pregnancy, unemployment, and crime and violence,” said Daley, who has selected Manning’s School as her first choice for placement having recently completed the Primary Exit Profile (PEP).

According to Daley, she was shocked when her name was called as the winner, “because there were many other people who entered the competition”.

Daley was also among 10 outstanding students in academics, performing arts, and sports at Grange Hill Primary who received 10-inch tablet computers from JAAC.

Principal of the school Clayton Smith was happy for Daley who is a prefect at the school.

“She really is one of the stalwarts in this school and to get that scholarship is really a blessing,” said Smith.

“She wrote her piece [and] I didn’t get to see it but…I had confidence that even though all of them would do well, she really seemed to have done well in the interview which gave her the edge over the others,” added Smith as he pointed out that Daley is a member of the school’s Spanish festival team.

She is also a STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) high achiever who has represented the school in a number of competitions.

“She is just an all-round student who we can actually depend on,” stated Smith, who was equally happy for the 10 students who received tablets.

Smith was also grateful for the books, sports equipment, and public address system, and other items which were presented to the school by JAAC.

In September Grange Hill Primary, which has a student population of 785, was removed from the shift system.

The school previously catered to a high of 1,035 students but has seen a steady decline since 2018 when seven people, including two children, were killed and others injured in two incidents in the Grange Hill community in one night.

The two incidents were blamed on gangsters involved in the lucrative but deadly lotto scamming scheme which has bilked millions of dollars from mainly elderly Americans.

During Monday’s handing-over ceremony, president of JAAC Patrick Williams said the US$3,500 will be disbursed to Daley’s family in instalments each term over the six years. Daley will be required to maintaining an average of no lower than B to retain the scholarship.

Williams said this is the second presentation of the scholarship which was specifically tailored to Grange Hill Primary. The first presentation was two years ago.

The JAAC was founded in 1987 by a group of Jamaicans living in the US and is aimed at contributing to the health and education systems in Jamaica.

A JCAA mission team with more than 75 medical and educational professionals is now in the island providing school supplies, equipment, health education, medical screenings, eye clinic and dental care in Trelawny, St James, Westmoreland, Hanover, St Elizabeth, Manchester, and Portland.

Among the schools benefiting from the JAAC this year are St Margaret’s Bay Primary and Buff Bay Primary in Portland; Duncan’s Primary in Trelawny; Mount Airy Primary and Infant and Grange Hill Primary in Westmoreland; Brownsville Primary, Mt Hannah Infant and Primary, Pondside Primary, and Mount Ward Primary in Hanover; Chetwood Primary, Catadupa Primary, Mount Salem Primary in St James; and Glen Stuart Primary, White Hill Primary and Infant, and Santa Cruz Primary and Infant in St Elizabeth.

The more than 400 boxes of items for the mission were shipped free of cost to Jamaica by the United States-based company Dennis Shipping, which is operated by Dennis Hawthorne, a past student of Grange Hill Primary.