NIA CHARLESTOWN NEVIS (JUNE 30, 2014) — Brendlyn Fyfield and Shaniece Jones were announced as the two awardees of the Medical University of the Americas (MUA)/ Nevis Island Administration (NIA) Health Science Scholarship on June 30, 2014, at a press briefing at the Ministry of Finance conference room.

 

 

Present at the event was Deputy Premier of Nevis and Minister of Health Hon. Mark Brantley, who congratulated the new scholarship awardees. He also encouraged persons to take advantage of the scholarship programmes offered on Nevis.

 

 

“I feel very happy to be here… I feel that this is something very personal for me and I want to congratulate both of you…I am exceedingly proud of both of them…my hope would be that as they embark on this very important journey, that they make themselves proud, they make their parents proud, they make their families proud and make their community proud and of course they make the island proud.

 

 

“I want to also take this opportunity to appeal to the young people out there, if you are interested in studying, yes the scholarships are gone this year for the MUA but please, when you get the notices please apply and make use of these opportunities. It is a wonderful thing to get a tertiary education,” he said.

 

 

The Health Minster also recorded the NIA’s gratitude to the MUA for its continued support to education and the Ministry of Health on Nevis through its assistance with scholarships.

 

 

“I want to record the Government’s thanks to the Medical University of the Americas for coming forward. MUA we’re told, has been here since 1998 or there about, so we’ve have had this agreement in place since then but for a variety of reasons, we have not actually seen this level of interest until quite recently,” he said.

 

 

Also present at the conference was Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health, Nicole Slack-Liburd, who explained what the MUA/NIA scholarship was about and outlined the criteria necessary for qualifying for the scholarship.

 

 

“The MUA/NIA scholarship is part of an agreement between the Medical University of the Americas and the Nevis Island Administration, where two scholarships are awarded annually for persons interested in pursuing tertiary education.

 

 

“The criteria for selection is based on a number of areas including academic performance, as well as financial needs and the priority needs of the country. Our two recipients this year will be studying radiological sciences as well as biology and those are two priority areas established here by the [MUA/NIA Scholarship Selection] Committee and the country as a whole,” she said.

 

 

The Permanent Secretary also explained that there were a total of seven applications participated in the application process this year and the Ministry of Health focused on a select few of the priority areas which included Medicine, Pharmacy, Biology, Chemistry and Physics.

 

 

In response the awardees expressed their gratitude to the NIA and the MUA for giving them the opportunity to further their education at Midwestern State University.

 

 

Both recipients will commence their studies in the area of medicine for the fall semester, where Fyfield will study for a Bachelor of Science Degree in Biology and Jones will study for a Bachelor of Science Degree in Biology – Radiological Sciences.

 

 

Members of the MUA/NIA Scholarship Selection Committee are Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health Nicole Slack-Liburd, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education Lornette Queeley-Connor, Permanent Secretary Human Resources in the Premier’s Ministry Ornette Herbert, HOPE Inc. representative Ron Daniel and Private Sector Representative Keesha Jones.