A delighted Mario Gordon (left) receives the Sandals Negril Community Award from Chairman of Sandals Resorts,
Gordon 'Butch' Stewart (right) during the Eighth annual Sandals Scholarship Awards
ceremony, held recently at Sandals Montego Bay.
-Contributed
Trudy Simpson, Freelance Writer
A YOUNG achiever is urging candidates who failed their external examinations to take heart and try again.
Commenting on reports of the poor performance of persons sitting various Caribbean Examination Council (CXC) and other external examinations, 17 year-old scholarship winner, Mario Gordon said that his peers should not give up.
"When you do an exam, if you don't pass it, don't feel worthless. Brush yourself off and start again. It does not make sense for you to worry or fret, just start again," remarked Mario last Friday.
A graduate of Rusea's High school in Hanover, Mario's love of school and his optimistic personality helped him to quickly overcome disappointments and led him to achieve six distinctions (grade 1), four credits (grade 2) and one pass between 2002 and this year in CXC and the General Certificate in Education (GCE).
He received distinction in Information Technology (IT), a subject that made the news recently when it was revealed that more than half of all students who sat the examination failed it. In addition, more than $1.2 million of public funds was wasted when a number of students failed to show up for the IT exam after the Government paid their examination fees.
Mario's academic success recently resulted in the 17-year-old receiving the Sandals Negril Community Scholarship award and being named the Top male academic achiever in Sandals Resorts' Eight Annual Scholarship Awards ceremony.
He took the success humbly: "I am extremely happy for this award, it will help my mother a far way, and I am hoping that one day in the near future I will be able to help a needy child just as how Sandals has helped me," he responded at the ceremony, a Sandals Resort release said.
The scholarship covers his tuition and uniform costs as well as external examinations costs, which he will accrue while attending sixth form at Mannings High School.
In the meantime, Mario, who wants to be an engineer or a geographical information systems programmer, says it was love for the subjects and not special study habits that made him successful.
