We are starting to receive grades for the scholarship students, and I am pleased to report—without exception—they are excellent.

Averages for Hampton School Students (where 95-100 is an A+, 85-94 is an A, 80-84 is an A-, and 75-79 is a B+):

• Anath Genus – 91.38
• Shakera Smith – 89.31
• Tajera Vernon – 85.38
• Samantha Dicker – 84.67
• Kimberlee Taylor – 81.75
• Timara Taylor – 76.7

We congratulate the students for the extraordinary effort they are making—and their families for giving them the support they need. We also wish to give sincere thanks to all those who support these students by donating.

This has been an exceedingly hard year financially; in private conversations, several parents of the scholarship students told me they had been unable to find work for months and they had no idea how they could have sent their children to school on a consistent basis without the Treasure Beach Foundation scholarships.

To all those who enjoy more fortunate circumstances, can you imagine not being able to have your child—especially one who is able to achieve outstanding work—not be able to even attend school? (We can't.)

Wow!! I'm impressed. Way to go ladies!! Keep up the hard work and self-discipline.

Thank you TB Foundation for making all this possible. We are awaiting the arrival of our raffle winners to Shakti Home this evening.

The impressive academic ability of scholarship winners and the great villas as prizes are two reasons I never hesitate to buy TB Foundation raffle tickets.

Thanks to Karen and company for all their good work, and congratulations to all the students for their hard work.

-Eric

Very impressive, Congratulations!

Yes, thank you to Karen and company for all of their good work.

-Nicole

This is excellent news. Well done to the students for all their hard work, and to everyone involved with Treasure Beach Foundation, particularly Karen, for their commitment to education.

What requirements have to be met by a student in order to obtain a scholarship

All our scholarships are awarded to students completing grade 6 at Sandy Bank Primary School. Scholarship students are selected by our Board of Directors. They are evaluated based upon recommendations of their teacher and principal; their grades for the prior two years; their written responses to numerous questions; and the results of their GSATs. Each of our Directors spends approximately 20-25 hours in the evaluation process, and then all evaluations are combined and put in order from highest to lowest to determine the recipients. The objective of the evaluations is to do our best to decide which of the students has the most potential to do well in high school--and, hopefully, university. Over the years we have been doing this, we have modified our criteria as we have learned more about our ability to predict those students who should be the most successful.

We have to limite the number of scholarships awarded not only because of what we perceive to be the ability and potential of the students--but also because of our financial constraints.

In terms of keeping a scholarship, we intend to continue to support the winners though high school (up to seven years) so long as our finances permit. The final grades received by the students at the end of each year in high school determine the level of support they will receive for the following year--a full, 3/4, or 1/2 scholarship. These can change (increase, stay the same, or decrease) from year to year based upon how well the student has performed in a particular year.

All our scholarships are quite inclusive and cover not only books, lab fees, and supplies. They also cover transport (quite expensive from Treasure Beach), uniforms, shoes, activity fees, and more.

We invite you to go to our site to receive additional information: www.TreasureBeachFoundation.org.

This programme is a labour of love.

May I ask what those on the Board of Directors and the Board of Advisors get paid for their duties? I might be interested in joining.

Thank you for your interest. None of our Directors or Advisors is compensated in any way except through the satisfaction of what we are doing. Our people are all unpaid volunteers. In addition, each member of our Board of Directors is required to make a sizeable annual financial contribution to Treasure Beach Foundation. (Our Advisors are not asked to contribute financially--only with their time.)

We are always interested in hearing from people who want to lend their assistance, but we feel it would be wrong to compensate Board members by taking money that can better be used to support our programs, particularly the student scholarships.

Know it's not possible but I wish all NGOS were run the way this one is. I am proud to give you my small and occasional donations.

The students are doing very well. Please update their grades and any other news as you have it. Thank you.

Congratulations to these fine students.