Archives for April 10, 2016
Guyanese girl gets into 8 Ivy Leagues and 13 other schools
April 10, 2016 By
Guyanese-born Kelly Hyles, 17, achieved a remarkable accomplishment, getting accepted into all eight Ivy
Leagues colleges in the US, as well as 13 other schools.
While she is a straight A student, she is the first to admit that getting into so many schools didn’t come without a lot of hard work.
Though she grew up in Queens, New York, Hyles spent the first decade of her life in a small village called Vryheid’s Lust, on the East Coast of Guyana.
“They were a bit more serious about school,” said Hyles of children from her village. “Teachers are allowed to beat you – it wasn’t anything severe, but it keeps kids in check.” She moved to the US when she was 11.
Hyles lives with her mother, who has set an example of what hard work looks like. Her mom works two jobs – she’s a home aide and a certified nursing assistant.
Hyles commutes an hour and a half every day to the High School for Math, Science and Engineering in Harlem; one of New York’s nine specialised high schools.
Hyles is one of less than two dozen black students in her senior class, which has more than 130 people. It’s a common theme throughout New York City’s specialised high schools – a fact she found troubling.
“I am convinced that the decrease is not due to intellectual aptitude, but to lack of preparation and confidence,” she wrote in one her personal statements.
So she did something about it. Hyles partnered with the DREAM programme, which prepares students for the Specialised High School Admissions Test. For three summers, she spent every weekday mentoring students at her former Brooklyn middle school.
When Hyles took the SAT for the first time in May 2015, she wasn’t satisfied with the results. She channelled that energy into studying more. A classmate gave her text books he no longer needed.
“My biggest sacrifice was sleep,” she said, adding that she averages about five hours a night. “Sometimes, I wanted to sleep late or go to the movies or a party with my friends, but I had to prioritise.” Hyles said she knew her mother wouldn’t have enough money to put her through school.
“I knew I had to at least get academic scholarships, if not need-based scholarships,” she said, adding that college application fees were waved due to her financial standing.
Being a great student isn’t enough, though. “I knew I needed to be well-rounded,” said Hyles, who is also a cheerleader and a dancer. “I heard stories of people that made amazing grades that didn’t get into the colleges they wanted.”
So Hyles and two other students started a Black Student Union at her high school in 2014. “There were no clubs in which students could voice their outrage,” she wrote in one of her favourite college essays about the unrest after the shootings of unarmed black teens.
The group hosts weekly meetings to discuss social issues and black “excellence.”
Hyles, who was recently named a Ron Brown Scholar, said she was well aware of the negative stigmas ahead of her – she’s black and a woman.
Instead of letting those beliefs win, she embraced things like her skin colour and her kinky hair. Hyles added that moving to a new country at a young age “was a culture shock,” but it taught her to be adaptable.
She said she waved at a woman and said “Good afternoon, auntie” while riding her bike when she first moved to the US. That’s the typical greeting in Guyana, but not so in Queens. “She looked at me like I was crazy.”
All of this has prepared her for wherever she lands. Hyles applied to 22 schools and was waitlisted only at Stanford University. She said that while Harvard has been her dream school, she’s considering all of her options.
“Honestly, I’ve had so many changes in my life I feel like I can adapt to fit in anywhere,” she said.
RHTY&SC to honour World Cup champion Campbelle
April 10, 2016 By
– Caribbean Airlines donates ticket
The Caribbean’s premier airline, Caribbean Airlines, has joined hands with the Rose Hall Town Youth and Sports Club (RHTY&SC) to honour West Indies World Cup champion, Shemaine Campbelle.
Campbelle, a member of Guyana’s leading youth and sports organisation, the RHTY&SC, and captain of its Metro Female Team, was a member of the victorious West Indies 20/20 World Cup team, which defeated Australia in the final to lift the title.
The RHTY&SC, during its 26th annual awards ceremony on April 17, would honour Campbelle with a collection of special gifts, including the airline ticket donated by Caribbean Airlines.
Secretary/CEO of the club, Hilbert Foster, expressed gratitude to Caribbean Airlines for the donation of the North American airline ticket as it would allow the RHTY&SC to properly honour Campbelle, who was described as a true and proud representative of the club and its tradition.
The club, he stated, over its short 26 years has achieved unbelievable success, but it was only the second time it has produced a world champion after Assad Fudadin was part of the West Indies Under-15 team in 2000.
Honouring its heroes on and off the cricket field, Foster stated was very important to the RHTY&SC, as the organisation strongly believes in recognising and rewarding hard work and dedication.
Campbelle, the long-serving Secretary/CEO noted, is an outstanding sports ambassador of the RHTY&SC, Berbice, Guyana and the West Indies.
Caribbean Airlines Marketing Executive, Dion Inniss, in handing over the airline ticket to Foster, stated that the airline was pleased to be associated with the club to honour Campbelle. The airline, Inniss stated, is fully aware of its corporate responsibility. He wished Campbelle and the RHTYSC the best in the future.
Govt working on implementation of regional Police Commanders
April 10, 2016 By
Very soon, each administrative region across the country will be appointed with its own regional Police Commander.
As a part of the major transformation awaiting the Guyana Police Force (GPF), Government had proposed the idea of assigning each of the 10 administrative regions with its own Police representative to ensure better control and management of security of each region.
Providing an update on the progress, President David Granger told media operatives that the proposal is still on the table, adding that his Administration is working swiftly to ensure this becomes a reality.
“What has happened is that we have a regional system with 10 regions, an old country system with three counties and an old colonial system with districts…,” the President pointed out as he lamented that in all the years gone by, no attempt was ever made to marry the Police divisions with the current regional administration.
“So there are a lot of anomalies. For example, the Commander of B Division actually straddles Region Five and Region Six. So we just want to streamline the system to ensure that one Police Commander would respond to Regional Chairman or one regional interest,” he explained.
In further supporting the need for this regional integration with the Police Force, President Granger further highlighted that there is only one grouping of Police managing the entire hinterland regions.
“Literally Region One, Seven, Eight and Nine were under one Divisional Commander who was actually working in Eve Leary and living in Georgetown…,” the President expressed.
Nonetheless, he pointed out that through his Administration’s intervention, the Divisional Commander is now living and working in Bartica, Region Seven.
AFC’s Ramayya flouts High Court order
April 10, 2016 By
… illegally swears in Councillors
Despite the ruling by a High Court Judge forbidding the swearing-in of two Berbicians to head the Gibraltar-Fyrish Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC), Regional Executive Officer (REO) of Region Six (East Berbice/Corentyne), Dr Veerasammy Ramayya ignored the court order and swore-in the NDC Chairman and Vice Chairperson.
Kerwin Crawford and Gail Thomas were sworn-in on Thursday at the REO’s Office, Vrymens Erven, New Amsterdam.
The People’s Progressive Party (PPP) had moved to the High Court to block the selection of a Mayor and Chairmen for five Neighbourhood Democratic Councils (NDCs), after there were ties between the councillors to elect heads for those councils.
The party was seeking to nullify the selection of Crawford as Chairman and Thomas as Vice Chairman of the Gibraltar-Fyrish NDC along with Audrey Thomas as Chairman of the Industry-Plaisance NDC; Peter Livingstone as Chairman and Royan Junior Thomas as Vice Chairman of the Malgre Tout-Meer Zorgen; Carol Nurse as Chairman and Wilbert Vhypius as Vice Chairman of the Woodlands-Bel Air; Gershon Clarke as Chairman of the Woodlands-Farm and the selection of Rupert Henry Smith as Mayor and Astrille Gamell as Deputy Mayor of the Municipality of Mabaruma.
Justice Diana Insanally ruled that the decision by Minister Bulkhan to select a Mayor and Chairmen for five NDCs was in violation of Municipal and District Councils Act Chapter 28:01 and the Local Government Act Chapter 28:02. She said the decision is in excess of and without jurisdiction, made in bad faith, is unreasonable, arbitrary, capricious, based upon irrelevant and improper considerations, malicious, vindictive, unlawful, ultra vires, null, void and of no legal effect.
Despite the ruling on Wednesday, Dr Ramayya on Thursday went ahead and installed Crawford and Thomas.
When Local Government Elections were held both the PNC and PPP had a deadlock and had decides that each side would alternate the chairmanship each year.
Meanwhile on Thursday the heads and their deputies for the other 15 NDCs were installed.
The PPP has the chairmanship for 14 NDCs with the APNU/AFC coalition heading the Hogstye/Lancaster NDC. Two NDCs will be headed by women while six women are vice chairpersons.
Those sworn-in are Teer Arjune and Pamela Bhadrasami for Jackson Creek/Crabwood Creek NDC, Devanand Chitram and Ahmad Rajab for Number 74 Village/Number 52 Village NDC, Swarsattie Sharif and Nagaser Sookram for Number 51 Village/Good Hope NDC, Norbat Dean and Vera France for Joppa/Macedonia NDC, Ganpat Harbance and Muneshwar Bira for Tarlogie/Maida NDC, Natasha Dwarka and Kalamudeen Mohamed for Bush Lot/Adventure NDC, Forbes Moore and Bridget Chichester for Hogstye/Lancaster NDC, Kissoolall Chitreka and Sewat Veerana for Whim/Bloomfield NDC, Imran Ali and Navendra Persaud for John/Port Mourant NDC, Haseef Yusif and Lucille Ayana for Hampshire/Kilcoy NDC, Crawford and Thomas for Fyrish/Gibraltar NDC, Basant Persaud and Raymond Mohamed for Kintyre/Borlam NDC, Steve Dasrat and Roy Jaffarally for Ordnance/Fortlands NDC, Carlos Causeway and Sherriann Beharry for Canefield/Enterprise NDC and Padaarat Sebarran and Wajid Khan for Enfield/New Doe Park NDC.
Region Chairman David Armogan in congratulating the new NDC heads and deputies said their election to the office is as a result of the confidence people have put in them: “Many times what we find is that when people are sworn into respective offices instead of becoming servants of the people, they become masters of the people and that is unacceptable. We expect that every one of you here having been duly sworn will ensure that you execute your duties in accordance with the Local Government Act.
There will be many problems in the community, I don’t want you to come into this work thinking that it is a walk over and it is easy, those of you who have been around before would know that it is not an easy task to serve your community.
There will be many demands, many more than you will be able to meet but you will have to be able to extend your resources and stretch it to the maximum to ensure that more people can benefit from the limited resources that you have.”
Ramayya informed the new NDC leaders that they will be required to work closely with the Regional Democratic Council.
Foster wants more emphasis on female cricket
April 10, 2016 By
By Avenash Ramzan
Secretary/CEO of the Rose Hall Town Youth and Sports Club (RHTY&SC), Hilbert Foster, is of the firm belief that much more can be done for the growth and development of female cricket in Guyana.
Speaking to this publication during an exclusive interview on Saturday, Foster, whose club in East Berbice has the most active female cricket set-up in the country, bemoaned the fact that the ladies are being left to play second fiddle to their male counterparts, noting that little or no interest is being paid to the females.
“Female cricket in Guyana is being treated like a step child with no emphasis being placed on it at all,” he declared.
“It’s only the Rose Hall Town Youth and Sports Club, which has about 18 girls as members right now, has a female team, and even we at the club are becoming frustrated because the girls are being forced to play Under-15, Under-17 and Under-19 against all-male teams. In a sense, it is assisting them to improve a lot playing against males, but at the same time it is quite frustrating because the girls want to play against their fellow females.”
Foster related that the West Indies Women’s title win at the World T20 should inspire more females to get into the sport in Guyana, but noted that the active cricket clubs around the country have got to show a keen interest in investing in female cricket.
Both Guyanese on the World Cup-winning West Indies Women’s team- all-rounder Shemaine Campbelle and fast bowler Tremayne Smartt- are products of the RHTY&SC. While Campbelle is currently the captain of the club’s Metro Female Team, Smartt is now attached to the Bermine male team.
“It is simply unbelievable that clubs like GCC [Georgetown Cricket Club], DCC [Demerara Cricket Club], Everest, Albion and the other top clubs in Guyana are placing no emphasis on females. There are a lot of girls out there who live far away from Rose Hall who want to play cricket, but to the huge cost in transportation and things like that they’re finding it difficult to travel down,” Foster explained.
He continued, “I really think the Guyana Cricket Board and the different county boards should be more proactive, because emphasis is only placed on the girls about two or three weeks before Inter-county, and the females in Demerara, I’ve spoken to some of them, they’re very upset that nobody seems to be placing them on the agenda…I don’t know how we will improve female cricket in Guyana if the girls are not playing 365 days a year.”
The Guyana Cricket Board is the governing body for the sport in Guyana, and female cricket falls under its purview. Foster has proposed a few ideas that the Board could implement to move cricket on the distaff side forward.
“They will have to identify a pool of girls for special training on a year-round basis, just like what they’re doing with the boys. They will have to invest in female school cricket so that we could have some new talents coming forth because it’s been one set of players dominating the female level year after year [in Guyana], unlike other countries where players like [Hayley] Matthews and [Afy] Fletcher and other exciting youths are coming up…we’re not having that in Guyana,” Foster explained.
He added, “I also think that the Guyana Cricket Board should give incentives to clubs to form female teams, whether it’s financially or with gear, but if we could have two or three clubs in every county to form a female team I think we will be on our way [to improving female cricket].”
Recruitment drive
Foster’s comments came less than a week after West Indies Women’s skipper Stafanie Taylor suggested that “a recruitment programme is needed as part of an elaborate plan to keep the sport alive in the region.”
Taylor was speaking days after the West Indies female side toppled Australia in the World T20 final in India, winning comfortably by eight wickets.
Taylor, who was voted player-of-the-tournament, is worried that women’s cricket in the region could suffer a significant decline if a proper system is not put in place for when the current crop of players retire.
The Jamaican all-rounder said a recruitment drive needs to target schools across the Caribbean, in particular. “We need to go into the schools and try to get girls to come out,” Taylor told the Jamaica Observer.
Infrastructure is another area Taylor believes could be improved in the Caribbean. “I think we definitely need some infrastructure where as Australia and England they do have it. We need young girls coming up. When you look at our team, most of us are fairly young and when these core players are gone. It’s going to deteriorate and we need to start building young players coming up.”
Taylor also spoke of her ambitions to see female Test cricket at some point.
“That’s one of my dreams, to play Test cricket. The type of player I am I think it will definitely suit and build my game as time goes on, but I will definitely love to play Test cricket. I think it will definitely help some of the girls. Longer format of the game where they could build their game and I think it will definitely help us in playing in one day games,” she explained. ([email protected])
Mother is the unending link in the chain of life
April 10, 2016 By