STUDENT-CENTRED
A fter the Government of Barbados reversed the tuition policy in 2018, Skeete applied for the BSc in Accounting and Finance and was accepted in the 2021 cohort. She did not let the fact that she was living pay cheque to pay cheque, which made budgeting for school very difficult, throw her off track. Instead, she applied for the RBC Royal Bank Scholarship and was approved. It helped that her grade point average (GPA) was 3.9 in her first semester back. “This scholarship was enough to get me through my first year comfortably. This was a huge weight lifted from my shoulders,” she said. “The greatest impact this scholarship has given me is peace of mind; not having to worry about the complications of not being on time with my payments or not needing to work a couple of extra shifts to settle a debt I owed, had I borrowed. Being fully focused on the school was a luxury I did not have but this scholarship has afforded me. It lessened the large financial strain that came with studying at the tertiary level, and it was definitely reflected in my grades for semester two of that year where I received a 4.1 GPA. Not considering my performance before I reapplied to school, today I am averaging a 3.8 GPA.” Skeete is among the scores of students who have benefitted from the more than $466,000 raised through the RBC Race for the Kids that has been held in partnership with The UWI, Cave Hill since 2017. Proceeds go towards financial aid initiatives like the Student Hardship and Emergency Fund and the First Year Experience Programme .
time, the Barbados Government had ended its free tuition policy for Barbadian undergraduate students. Her school grades suffered. “My parents were separated, so that meant bills came in twos. I was working extra shifts wherever I could to make a little extra money, and I had no days off. If I wasn’t at school, I was at work. Along with the financial burden, it was also becoming harder and harder to keep up in class since my mind was preoccupied with issues at home. To say it was difficult was an understatement, and a year later, I dropped out of university.” Despite this, Skeete never lost sight of her higher education goal and decided to put aside money to achieve it. However, her savings were wiped out within months during the COVID-19 pandemic. And though many people would have focused on the negatives, she used it as a teaching moment. “Being the only person in my household who was called back out to work in the initial months of limited reopening meant there was no room for any type of savings. But the more experience I gained working without a degree, the more urgency I felt to return to school. Be that as it may, I cannot regret those years I chose to work over continuing my studies, as they have moulded me into the person I am today, reiterated the value of education and reminded me of my long-term goals.”
CHILL NEWS 47
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