Damion McIntosh with United States Ambassador Brenda LaGrange Johnson on a visit to the embassy in Kingston recently. - Contributed

Jamaican Damion McIntosh, a recipient of the prestigious Fulbright Graduate Student Scholarship in 2006, has been selected by the Southern Illinois University Carbondale (SIUC) as the Most Outstanding MBA Student for the academic year 2007-2008.

McIntosh accepted his award at SIUC's annual Honours Day ceremony, held at the university recently. He won from a field of hundreds of distinguished scholars enrolled at the SIUC's School of Business.

Amazing opportunity

The 30-year-old Fulbright scholar thanked the United States Embassy for selecting him for the scholarship in 2006, and said that studying at SIUC was an "amazing opportunity" and "enriching experience".

The top student completed his MBA in one year, instead of the normal two years, and because Damion excelled in his studies, the school accepted him into SIUC's PhD programme in business administration, specialising in finance.

Tuition waived

SIUC has also waived his tuition for the doctoral programme and gave him an assistantship for the duration of his studies, that is renewable annually for up to three years.

On completion of his doctoral studies in 2010, McIntosh plans to return to his substantive post of assistant director in the Financial Institutions Supervisory Division at the Bank of Jamaica, where he hopes to use his new skills to target his area of specialisation.