Unbiased look at the Sint Maarten Elections
COLE BAY--Some 194 pupils celebrated their graduation with a joint school leaving exercise for St. Maarten's six public primary schools, in a ceremony filled with song under the banner "Why fit in when you were born to stand out?" held Friday morning at Princess Port de Plaisance Resort.
Minister of Education, Culture, Youth and Sports Affairs Rita Bourne-Gumbs and Head of Division of Public Education Glenderlin Davis-Holiday joined family members of the pupils, and past and present school officials of the Leonald Conner School, Marie Genevieve de Weever School, Oranje School, Ruby Labega Primary School, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Primary School, and Charles Leopold Bell School for the ceremony.
Each graduate took to the stage to be congratulated with handshakes, hugs and kisses by proud School Managers, their teachers, Holiday, and Minister Bourne-Gumbs who presented them with their Foundation Based Education (FBE) diplomas.
The top performing pupil of each school was recognised: Idemar Chase of Marie Genevieve de Weever School, Weiming Wu of Oranje School, Claudina Carty of Ruby Labega Primary School, Wade Anderson of Charles Leopold Bell School, Sterling Marlin of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Primary School, and Karoline Quispe de los Santos of Leonald Conner School.
Of the six, Quispe de los Santos was named overall top performer. As Holiday announced this, she said that Wu scored the same amount of points, but that Quispe de los Santos scored perfectly in all four subjects.
As she gave a speech, Quispe de los Santos recalled that when she entered Leonald Conner School five years prior, she "did not speak a word of English, besides 'Good morning.'" She thanked the teachers for the dedication and extra effort that pushed her to become a top achiever. She will be attending St. Dominic High School upcoming school year.
The top six were presented with electronic tablets, courtesy of Pamela Gordon Carty of Master Accounting Services, and Quispe de los Santos was presented with a scholarship award of NAf. 3,400 by Maria Richardson of Together We Can Foundation, along with a pledge to donate more in the following years.
Tokens of appreciation were also given for their various contributions to a number of past school officials and Minister Gumbs, who was also previously the School Manager of Marie Genevieve de Weever School. Master of Ceremonies was Daison Marks, who also attended one of the public schools.
