The
completion of Std VI at Crooked
Tree Village
was full of excitement. Announcements were sent out by teachers and families to
extended family members and friends announcing the "Graduation" with an
elaborate party to follow. Yes, this all happened in Crooked Tree
Village last Thursday,
June 28, 2012.
During this graduation season, Crooked Tree School graduated 20 students and all achieved competitive and outstanding Primary School Examination (PSE) marks that will enable them to move on to high school. And
talk about competition; two students were neck and neck this year as
valedictorian; Arturo Wade and Shawn Crawford received the highest honors as
students of the year.
Principal
Winnie Gillett addresses the graduates by impressing upon them the importance
of graduation. She told them that graduation is a chance to say goodbye, to
reflect on past accomplishments, and encourage them to look forward to the next
phase in life. “I think it is important for these kids to be recognized and be
celebrated for who they are, and where they are in life’s journey. I also firmly believe that
having the collective chance to pause and reflect is truly important. I also
want to send a message to the parents of these students that this is not the
end, only a station on the road. Without you, parents, the chance of a high school diploma is not possible; you do and
will make a difference in the lives of these outstanding children."
Valedictorian-Arturo Wade
Valedictorian-Shawn Crawford
Guest
speaker, Mr. John Gillett IV encouraged all the students to set a goal. “You
must have a goal or goals that you are seeking to achieve both educationally and
personally”. He encouraged all students to graduate from high school and prepared
for college or advanced career training.
All students
were invited to the podium by Annamarie Gillett, where they were presented with
their diplomas and special awards and scholarships.
Mr. John
Gillett III, General Manager of the Belize Sugar Industries presented three four-year
scholarships to Arturo Wade, Alethea Garbutt and Rhavin Gillett.
Shawn
Crawford received a four-year scholarship from Ms. Adela Pederson, President of
the Consortium for Belizean Development, Ins. in San Diego, California, USA.
Alex Aragon received a scholarship from Ms
Hilda Flowers, and Shane Crawford from Mr. Lloyd Allen.
Congratulations to the graduates, teachers
and parents of Crooked
Tree Village!
Guest Speaker- John Gillett IV
A
pleasant good morning to all!
Before I
commence I would like to pay special acknowledgement to those in attendance
namely: School Principal Mrs. Winnie Gillett and her fellow staff members,
Belize Rural North Area Rep. Hon Edmund Castro, Local Manager for Government
Schools Mr. Lopez, General Manager for Government Schools Rev. Anthony, village
chairman George Guest, other special invited guests, parents, guardians, fellow
villagers and most importantly the 20 students of Crooked Tree’s Government
School 2012 graduating class.
I must
say today that I am deeply honored and humbled in being asked to be the guest speaker
for this special occasion. It was a surprise when I received the telephone call
asking me to be this year’s guest speaker, and it was an even greater surprise
to me the 2 seconds it took to answer YES. For those who may not know me well,
my roots lie very deep in the Village
of Crooked Tree. Both my parents,
Chriselda Westby Gillett and John Gillett II were born and raised in Crooked
Tree and both attended this very school, decades ago.
I am
grateful for the heritage I have gained through my parents who are indeed
fruits of this
village, as I have found myself spending much of my life in Crooked Tree,
learning many important values from the village elders and my fellow relatives
and friends. This was my foundation in life and complemented by my own
ambition, has contributed to me being the individual I am today at age 28. Today,
I know this audience expects a lengthy, well worded, inspirational speech, and
I will try my best to match these expectations, but most importantly I wish to
lend a helpful hand and provide relevant words of advice to our graduates, with
myself clearly remembering being in their shoes some 16 years ago.
Well
graduates, here we are today celebrating your great accomplishment and more so
the great foundation your family, friends and school have assisted you to
build. A primary school education in the work environment is not highly
regarded when seeking employment, but I believe it is the greatest building
block in life for any individual. Today, our 20 graduates have experienced a
primary school education through Crooked
Tree Government
School, and I am certain the
management and staff have done a fine job in ensuring our graduates are able to
step into any secondary level institution in Belize and perform at the highest
level. I cannot continue without highlighting the impressive level of
performance the students and staff of Crooked Tree
Government School
put forth in the 2012 PSE, we placed 7th in the Belize District, and 14th
country wide. I must say that whatever is being done to get this level of
performance, let’s keep this formula going.
You have
all done well, and are now prepared to enter a new chapter of your life from
both a personal and educational standpoint. With dedication and hard work, you
are geared for success. However, this might be easier said than done boys and
girls; as individuals there are several things you must do on your part to
ensure success in future educational experiences and more so in your life
moving forward.
First of
all graduates, you must have a goal or goals that you are seeking to achieve
both educationally,
and personally. I know you all had a goal to complete your primary school education
or as easier said ‘pass standard 6’. I know you are all young, but it is never
too early to know what you want in life and to start setting goals for
yourself. To do well in life, you have to know what you want to achieve. You
will realize that as you continue to mature; planning becomes more essential as
the demands on your life increase. I hope that by this time, you have already
set a goal as to the high school you will be attending and also set a goal as
to which level of education you wish to achieve in the years to come. I will
say graduates, don’t be afraid of being ambitious, nothing is too big for you,
it is all achievable. You may be afraid or shy to say at this time to your
family and friends, ‘I want to obtain a Master’s or Doctorate Degree’ because
we all know this takes many years, endless effort and even more the finances involved
in achieving these goals are substantial. However, I guarantee you that once a
goal is set in your mind; you have automatically given yourself a great chance
of achieving that goal.
Graduates,
put in your minds today, you can and will achieve that goal which is now set in
your mind.
Growing
up as a young man, I had an educational goal, that goal was to obtain a Master’sDegree.
Now, I never knew how many years it would take me, how many hours of study I
would have to put in, or how much money it would require; but I moved ahead in
life taking things one step at time, never going ahead of myself. Apart from
all these factors contributing to the achievement my goal, most important was
the strong support received from my great family and the very good friends in
my life. Today I task the parents, guardians and immediate family members of
our graduates to lend them the moral support needed. Financial support is
crucial, but will only do so much for you; the inspirational words and advice
you receive each day will go even further.
Again I
talk from experience, and I will say I was fortunate to have parents who kept
me in line when I strayed from my goal and also motivated me when I was down.
Now, outside of your family at home, you have and will meet many people in
life, some of whom you create close friendships with. Friends are a great
complement to any of our lives, I beg however be careful of the friends you
choose. Friends have the ability to build you up or bring you down, in the end
ensure the people close to you in your life are those who bring optimism to you
and support the achievement of your goals.
A second
point of importance I want to highlight leads off my last statement and spells
the importance of maintaining a positive mentality in life. Before I have
hinted on the value of having support from family and friends, but all that
support cannot materialize if you do not maintain a positive attitude. As you
move into your next level of education, you will meet school work that
challenges you, teachers that pressure you, and fellow school mates with different
personalities you may find difficult to understand. Well, these are indeed
realities of life that you cannot allow to bother you and create any form of
negativity within you. Again I come back to the fact that no matter what
challenge you meet, you must remain focused on achieving your goal. Do not
allow issues that are outside of your control to bother you, you need to
control what is within your power and don’t take life too personally.
A concept
I apply to my own life is that everything that happens, whether positive or
negative, happens for a good reason. Here is where a positive mentality comes
into play allowing you to firstly understand why things happen and not
relenting and beating down on yourself for things that have already occurred.
Recall, we cannot change the past, but we can create a path for and dictate our
future. It is obvious that no human being is perfect; we do make mistakes and
fail at certain things in life, in the end we must continuously learn from
these mistakes and failures in order to improve. Only through experience can
you continue to further develop yourself, and the experience to be gained over
the next 4 years of your life will only make you stronger. I encourage you to
be open to experiencing all that life has to offer, you are young and will grow
to be productive citizens of this village and country; and I cannot reiterate
enough how all this will be done. It can only be done with each of you
maintaining a positive attitude towards life.
As you
have now experienced what I would called the first phase in your educational
path, this leads me to discuss as my third major and final point, which is the
value and importance of an education. I am especially proud to see 20 strong
graduates from the successful program Crooked Tree
Government School
has put in place and to that yes, we have 20 more members of our village
walking down the right path in life. I speak highly of education, as I have
myself during my school days realized through both good and bad experiences,
how valuable an education is. To give you a short story, when I attended high
school in Orange Walk, I started off as a good student with good grades. First
form went well, second form started well; but as I progressed throughout the
year I began falling for some of the temptations of youth and slacking off my
studies; forgetting that what I put in my studies, being nothing, is what I
would eventually get out of it. I fell out of love with my education and fell
in love with basketball; I actually believed I could make the NBA by practicing
hard enough, a good goal, just not one for me. Eventually, I neglected my
education so much that when I received my end year results, I grew pale and
started a cold sweat realizing I had failed a grade for the first time in my
life.
Essentially,
I lost focus on achieving a goal I had set when I entered high school, but I
learnt a hard lesson and from that day forward right through to the time I
achieved my Master’s Degree, no one has ever had to tell me to hit the books and
study again. While I did fail during the course of achieving my high school
diploma, which took me 5 instead of 4 years, I have never regretted failing and
know that it was indeed the most important learning lesson and more so a
positive turning point in my life.
Now
students, don’t go trying to mimic my experience, but rather come to realize
the
importance
of an education, realize the effort you will be putting in everyday as you
travel to and from school, realize the amount of class and home study hours you
will be putting in, and realize how hard your parents or guardians have to work
to provide you with the necessary financial support allowing you to obtain an
education and more so giving you an opportunity to succeed in life. Leave
nothing to chance, graduates, what you put in your education, is what you will
get out of it. You are now set to continue down the right path in life and with
an opportunity to continue uplifting the Village of Crooked Tree
and become productive citizens of our country. Keep your goal in front of you
and stay positive every day. We know you will feel obligated to make teachers,
friends and family proud as you enter high school; however at the end of the
day I want you to move ahead in life impressing yourself and making yourself
proud.
Today I
hope I have helped you in opening your minds in some way or form and I wish you
all the success in life. With your great minds, you will grow to achieve great
things and become even greater adults. From me to you; a huge congratulation on
your achievement!
Thank You….