Shadell Peters of St Joseph’s Convent Grenville (SJC) was the winner of the 2018  EU Buckmire Award, making this the fourth consecutive year that the SJC Grenville has captured this prestigious award.

The seventeen-year-old from Telescope, St Andrews attained six Grade Ones and five Grade Twos and did exceptionally well in various science subjects, placing her as the top science student among the four secondary schools in St Andrews.

A special ceremony was held on October 16, at St Joseph Convent Grenville to commemorate Shadell’s success and six other distinguished awardees.

 “I feel privileged to be the recipient of the EU Buckmire Award. Though it was challenging I never lost focus,I was fully motivated and aimed for the highest. I studied a lot, maybe too much. I remember my mother begging me to get out of the books and do something else because she thought I would get crazy. But excelling was always at the forefront for me,” she proudly stated.

During her time at SJC Grenville, Shadell maintained the highest average from Form One through to Form Five. She continues on the road to success and has already been selected on the Honor Roll at the TA Marryshow Community College (TAMCC) where she is studying Business Management.

Shadell’s name will now be inscribed on the coveted, EU Buckmire Board which is displayed at the front of Parris Pharmacy Ltd in Grenville.

Since the Award started 13 years ago, the St Andrews Anglican Secondary School (SAASS)has won the EU Buckmire Trophy five times while the young ladies at the Convent have dominated with eight wins. 

Dr Reginald Buckmire, the son of the founder of Parris Pharmacy the late, Emmanuel Urias Buckmire, said, that the aims of the Award were to stimulate the scientific method of thinking amongst students; to create an independent group of children with innovative investigative skills and to initiate and sustain the link between the world of study and work.

He added “We hope that we can motivate some of the students to include science subjects in their choice of studies. We believe that this initiative will help in placing  Grenada’s name on the map of discovery in science and technology.”

However, despite the Buckmire Family’s efforts to motivate young minds in science, the Scientific Awards Committee is dissatisfied with the level of participation of students writing Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) exams.

Based on statistics provided by Dr Glen Duncan, a member of the Buckmire family, on average one science subject is written per student. In 2005 at the start of the Awards, 21.7% of St Andrews students wrote science exams ,but by 2017 it had fallen to just 16.7 %. The percentage of children writing Agriculture Science in 2005 was 43%, however, it had decreased to 22.3% in 2017.

It is the Buckmires’ vision that students will apply their scientific and technological skills to improve the Agricultural sector, especially nutmeg and cocoa crops.

The Foundation has deposited seed monies with the Republic Bank Grenada Ltd and sees this as a catalyst to develop a much larger science foundation. Therefore the Buckmires are calling on civic-minded persons and cooperative bodies to join the Foundation.

The EU Buckmire Foundation was established in 1993, and the Memorial Science Award began in 2005. Dr Liselle Joseph was the first Awardee and is now pursuing Aeronautical Engineering and may be the first West Indian astronaut. Another Awardee is in the United Kingdom studying Cognitive Science which deals with the quest of what is a memory while another awardee is studying the biochemistry of nutmegs.

The selection process is conducted by an Award Committee which comprises of a member of the Buckmire family as the coordinator, a representative from the Ministry of Education, a representative from the Grenada Union of Teachers and a representative of the science fraternity of St George’s University and Mr Denis Noel, a scientific entrepreneur.