There are two 4th Form graduates of Saint John's College who are preparing to participate in a prestigious engineering program at the Cave Hill Campus of the University of the West Indies.
It's called the Caribbean Science Foundation's Student Program for Innovation in Science and Engineering (SPISE). It will be a month-long science-based program where Belizean candidates, Mishek Musa and Siian Rancharan will get an educational benefit afforded to 18 other chosen students from the Caribbean.
Today, we spoke with Rancharan about the distinction of his representation given the rigorous selection process. He also placed in the context that the Belizean society doesn't place a high value to pursuit of science in higher learning:
Siian Rancharan - Selected for Engineering Program
"I was hopeful. I wasn't sure if I would get in but it was kind of nerve racking in the sense that they only had limited names on the slots and in terms of the entire Caribbean, you are competing from a lot of different Caribbean countries. I think it's interesting because I know that the program has been for the past I think 2-3 years and we've only had one student from Belize in the very first year and then last year we didn't have any. I was very happy when I found out that my classmate and I would be doing it."
Yasser Musa, Father of Mishek Musa
"It is obvious as parents, we are very proud of him and I feel that he has earned it. From ever since he was a young child, we saw in him this strong curiosity; this sense of always wanting to build things, construct things, investigate things and obviously that is the basis of science - this inquisitive mind. And the subjects that he loves is physics and math and then the ones that he doesn't do the best in are English and Literature and you don't know many students like that, right. So you know that he obviously has a part of his brain that is on that level I would say."
Siian Rancharan - Selected for Engineering Program
"I think there is always a stigmatization, a misconception of what science really is and what people think its difficult. Its more to me I think it's important that you do something you love and once you do something that you love, you are going to be very happy with it regardless. I think that the reason why I explain this is because I have a pleasure of doing it, but at the same time science gives you a different perspective of the entire world around you, like how does this work and why is the sky blue - the way you look at different things it gives you a different perspective on life as well."
Yasser Musa, Father of Mishek Musa
"Science is shun upon in a society that is so restricted, so conservative, comes out of such a very rigid colonial atmosphere and so things like science tries to break out, tries to become innovative will always be a side line and I think this opportunity shows and it should be more of it shown, but it shows that we are now opening up. There could be a renaissance for Belize as it relates to science."
Both students will enroll at the Saint John's College Junior College in the 2014-2015 academic year.
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