Twenty year-old Utech first-year pharmacy student, Xavier Ramol Campbell, is the 2011 recipient of the Bruce Rickards Scholarship.

The annual scholarship which is in its 10th year is awarded by the Grace Kennedy Foundation to a Kingston College student of outstanding academic achievement, in memory of the first chairman of the Kingston College Development Trust Fund (KCDTF), Bruce Rickards. Mr. Rickards was a manager of Grace Kennedy and a director of the Foundation. The scholarship which is awarded to Bruce Rickards’ alma-mater, was first announced by the Chairman of the Foundation - Douglas Orane, at Mr. Rickards’ funeral service at St. Andrew Parish Church in 2001.

This year’s recipient Xavier Campbell, grew up in Greater Portmore with his parents Mark Campbell and Charmaine Mighty-Campbell. He attended St. Catherine Preparatory School where he represented the school at cricket, and tried his hand at track & field and football.

Having passed the GSAT with an 80% average, Campbell entered the hallowed portals of KC in Michaelmas 2004. Most of his time was spent beating the books and he had little time for much extra-curricula activities. In Grade 9 he tried out for discus and shot put, but found the field too competitive. A relatively small-built lad, Xavier instead stuck to activities in service clubs such as the ISCF, when he was in Grades 7 and 8, and was a founding member and conceptualizer of the environmental club, when he reached Grade 12.

In 2009, Xavier attained 10 CSEC subjects namely, mathematics, English language, English literature, Spanish, information technology, geography, chemistry, physics, biology and social studies. In 2010 - 2011, he attained CAPE 1&2 passes in chemistry, physics, biology, communications and Caribbean studies. He attends New Testament Church and lists watching television and reading among his hobbies.

The Bruce Rickards Scholarship which alternates between UWI and UTech, mainly covers tuition. But it can also be extended to cover books, boarding and other costs depending on the circumstances of the student. Campbell’s scholarship is for four years at J$400,000 per annum. Research oriented, he is looking forward to doing post-graduate work in pharmacology.
Now in its tenth year, the Bruce Rickards Scholarship, through the Grace Kennedy Foundation, has disbursed over J$8 million in scholarships and bursaries to ten Kingston College students. Besides Campbell, the other nine recipients were:

• 2002 - Greg Walcom: He studied law at UWI Mona and Cave Hill and obtained LLB Degree Upper Second Class Honours. He is presently in private practice.
• 2003 - Dwayne Morrell: When he was awarded the scholarship, he was a third-year Business Administration student at UTECH majoring in production and operations management. He graduated with a BBA degree in 2004/05.
• 2004 - Dwayne Burrowes: The head boy of 2002/03, completed his B.Sc. degree in mechanical engineering at UWI St. Augustine in 2005/06.
• 2005 - Junior Gowie: The UTECH mechanical engineering student completed his 4 year degree programme about 3 years ago.
• 2006 - Asad McKenzie: Completed his final year at Mona when he attained a B.Sc. degree in the Faculty of Pure and Applied Sciences.
• 2007 - Andre Campbell: Completed his final year in mechanical engineering at Utech, and is to graduate in November 2011.
• 2008 - Roger Grant: A student in the Faculty of Pure and Applied Sciences, Roger graduated from UWI in 2010 with a B. Sc. in electronics, and was one of the first cohorts in the newly introduced medical, physical and bioengineering programme. He is currently working with a Chinese electronic company in Belize.
• 2009 - Francois Graham: Presently a final year student pursuing a B. Sc. degree in computer science at UT ECH.
• 2010 - D’oyen Nelson: Presently a second year medical student at UWI, Mona.