Shain­na Tikas­ingh

The oc­cur­rence of a bru­tal school fight and the loss of for­mer prin­ci­pal Jenif­fer Thokhai did not damp­en the spir­it of stu­dents and staff when San Fer­nan­do West Sec­ondary School host­ed its 31st an­nu­al grad­u­a­tion cer­e­mo­ny yes­ter­day. Held at the Na­pari­ma Bowl, grad­u­ates of Form Five cel­e­brat­ed the end of a chap­ter of their aca­d­e­m­ic life.

Fea­ture speak­er David Arthur told the grad­uands of the im­por­tance of ex­celling in the world of chang­ing op­por­tu­ni­ties. A past stu­dent at the school and the CEO of D Arthur & Co Ltd, Arthur gave the stu­dents five prin­ci­ples by which to be guid­ed in or­der to suc­ceed. "It is im­por­tant to have pas­sion and pur­pose, be proac­tive...Do not sit back and al­low things to hap­pen," he said.

At the cer­e­mo­ny, prizes were hand­ed to the most de­serv­ing pupils. Kevin Ramkisson emerged as the most aca­d­e­m­i­cal­ly in­clined stu­dent and col­lect­ed awards in physics, build­ing tech­nol­o­gy, math­e­mat­ics, tech­ni­cal draw­ing, Most Out­stand­ing Stu­dent, and the cov­et­ed Prin­ci­pal's Prize. De­nille Sem­per al­so re­ceived sev­er­al awards for her out­stand­ing achieve­ments. These in­clud­ed awards in ge­og­ra­phy, eco­nom­ics, Eng­lish A, prin­ci­ples of busi­ness and Span­ish.