President’s Medal winners urge youth:

2026-01-25 - 21:09

This country’s two President’s Medal winners are advising youngsters to choose their friends wisely and to overcome doubt by trusting in themselves. The winners for outstanding performance in this year’s Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE), Aaliyah Serrette and Elizabeth Singh, were beaming with pride but remained humble about their accomplishments. Serrette, a former student of Bishop Anstey High School East and Trinity College East (BATCE), topped the Business Studies, Creative and Performative Studies, Language Studies, Modern Studies, Humanities, and Technical Studies grouping. She was quick to offer words of encouragement to young people as they work toward achieving their goals. “Because the people that you surround yourself with, you’re most likely to develop their habits, their mindsets,” she said. Up until her interview via Zoom with Guardian Media yesterday afternoon, the reality had yet to set in for the 19-year-old. “I don’t think I’m experiencing the high yet. It’s still taking some time for me to process everything, so right now, I just feel overwhelmed and I’m still wondering if it’s really me,” she shared. However, her achievement helped her realise that she could have been a little easier on herself. Her mother, Angelique DeMille-Serrette, agreed but said this has been Aaliyah’s mentality since primary school. She recalled pleading with Aaliyah to take breaks, though they rarely lasted more than a few minutes. “She would take a break for like about five minutes, and she would go back in her room, so there were times you never saw her for a full day ... If you saw her for an hour for the day, you saw plenty,” DeMille-Serrette said. “Every day when we’re going up to school, when she was at BATCE, and even to UWI, we’d be praying every morning in the vehicle. And she would hear me asking God for her blessings, whatever it is that He wants to give. And this is really and truly a very great blessing that she has received from God,” she continued. Serrette credited her success to her support system, those she was blessed with, and the friends she chose. She also believes parents can support their children in choosing the right friends. “I think that parents need to be a little bit more empathetic in general, because friendships these days are not the same as friendships when they were younger, and there are many different influences — for example, social media,” she said. For Singh, 19, a former Naparima Girls’ High School student now pursuing Chemical Engineering at the University of South Florida in Tampa, the news of her accomplishment first reached her through a friend. Shock quickly turned to elation, but it was only when she saw the official announcement that the reality of the achievement truly sank in, and she immediately called her parents and siblings. “I was so excited and so happy about the news. It was surreal—that feeling of just, wow, everything I worked for came through,” she said. Singh described the journey as exciting but filled with long hours and hard work. Despite the pressure, she persevered. “I’ve always had a passion for science and math ever since I was younger,” she added, noting that a disciplined study routine and good time management were crucial, but paying attention in class and participating in extracurricular activities were just as important. Apart from the compulsory subjects—Communication Studies and Caribbean Studies—she also studied Pure Math, Applied Math, Biology, and Chemistry. Admitting she had self-doubts sometimes, she said, “You’re always going to have doubts. It’s not just going to be a straight road. It’s going to have potholes. It’s going to have curves. It’s going to make you dizzy sometimes. But it’s important to push through the challenges and make sure that you know the reason that you are there, and that reason is worth being under that pressure and stress. You have to trust in what you do and trust in who you are to push you through whatever challenges you are facing and whatever doubts you may be experiencing.” She was grateful for her parents’ support. “All the things I have achieved, it is not only me—it takes a village to achieve those things.” Singh and Serrette were announced as CAPE President’s Medal awardees by Tertiary Education and Skills Training Minister Prakash Persad in the House of Representatives on January 23.