One degree to success: JPS President Hugh Grant shares recipe for success with 6th form students

JPS President and Chief Executive Officer Hugh Grant has challenged high school students to be willing to make extra sacrifices in order to attain professional success. 

 “It’s extremely important that you are focused on your goal at hand, and you are being purposeful around what you are doing,” Grant urged a lecture hall filled with lower sixth formers from St Andrew High School for Girls, Kingston College, and Holy Childhood High gathered at the University of West Indies, Mona campus’s Faculty of Science and Technology on Thursday, January 9.

“But, to get where you need to go, it takes sacrifice. There is no traffic on the extra mile. For those who get up earlier, it’s a whole different experience from those who get up later. It means you have to also go to bed earlier. It means that you have to come off the social media platforms earlier, or you have to shut off the games you have earlier, or whatever sacrifices you have to make,” the island’s power company top man said at an introductory meeting with students attending weeklong Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Exams (CAPE) workshops facilitated by the JPS Foundation in partnership with the university. 

“Trust me, making that extra sacrifice is very, very rewarding. But to do it, you have to be intentional and you have to be disciplined,” he added.”

The Foundation signed a $16 million, five-year Memorandum of Understanding in 2023 with UWI, Mona. The Foundation provides support for annual workshops, which commenced with the first cohort of students last year preparing to sit science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) CAPE subjects in Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Computer Science, Geography and Math. The workshops are designed to strengthen the performance of students pursuing the targeted subjects and facilitate a reduction in the workshop price to students, from potentially $5,000 to $1,500. The price will be fixed at $1,500 for the next five years. The CAPE workshops will allow high school students to access UWI labs, improve their knowledge base, and improve their preparation to sit the exams. This year marks the second year of the MOU.

Charting the educational and professional trajectories of his life, Grant shared with the secondary school students that developing a confident, self-determined mindset was a key driver to becoming accomplished.