competition which was held in Boston (February 2022).
David is a prolific writer and award-winning journalist who frequently published articles in the Daily Gleaner. Throughout his time at the UWI, he wrote over 250 news stories and columns that tackled thorny issues or proposed solutions to pressing problems in society. In 2019, while in his first year at university, he was the recipient of the Press Association of Jamaica (PAJ) Morris Cargill Award for Opinion Journalism 2019 at age 19. He has been shortlisted for this award and the Young Journalist of the Year Award each year since then. Moreover, he was the winner of the Chancellor Hall’s essay competition in 2020 and the Jamaica Special Economic Zone Authority Essay Competition in 2021. While this year, he presented at the West Indies Economic Conference hosted by the UWI Department of Economics and Caribbean Studies Association (CSA) Young Scholars Dialogue which was held last year. Due to his efforts to relaunch the Jamaica Prefects’ Association, David was awarded the Prime Minister National Youth Award for Nation Building in November 2019. Since then, he served as Surrey County coordinator for the National Youth Parliament of Jamaica in 2020, ending his tenure as Prime Minister for the eleventh staging of the sitting. Throughout his tenure, over 880 young people benefitted from the online seminar series the county hosted. He also facilitated the donation of 1,350 textbooks to five (5) high schools in St. Thomas and Portland. David is the founder of the New Jamaica Foundation (NJF), which is an organization whose mandate is to promote youth development. Over the years, the NJF has hosted numerous workshops, planned donations and hosted exam revision sessions for hundreds of secondary school students. For his academic performance and community involvement, David received the Governor-General Achievement Award for the parish of St. Andrew in 2021. He is eager to make his contribution to national development. Since January 2021, he has served as the Regulations and Certification Committee Chairman of the board of the Early Childhood Commission (ECC). In this position, he successfully advocated for the declaration of the Year of Early Childhood Development which was made by Proclamation by Governor General, Sir Patrick Allen in January 2022. During his tenure, the number of delinquent early childhood instructions (ECIs) fell dramatically from 140 in February 2021 to 54 in August 2022. His committee also published the inaugural Assessment Report of Early Childhood Institutions in March 2022, which provides the inspection scores of all ECIs throughout Jamaica. This year, he will be pursuing a Master of Philosophy in Development Studies at the University of Cambridge after receiving the HRH Prince of Wales Scholarship.
Presentation of Graduates 2022 | 79
Made with FlippingBook interactive PDF creator