Sascha Wil­son

Se­nior Re­porter

sascha.wil­son@guardian.co.tt

En­er­gy Min­is­ter Dr Roodal Mooni­lal en­cour­aged the 28 grad­u­ates of the Cedar Grove Pri­vate School to be coura­geous and stand firm in their val­ues.

In his ad­dress at their grad­u­a­tion cer­e­mo­ny at Na­pari­ma Bowl, San Fer­nan­do, on Tues­day, Mooni­lal re­mind­ed them that as they tran­si­tion to larg­er in­sti­tu­tions, they will face greater ex­po­sure to pos­i­tive op­por­tu­ni­ties and neg­a­tive in­flu­ences.

He en­cour­aged them to be strong to re­sist temp­ta­tion, adding: “That is your mot­to to­day be very brave in re­sist­ing the temp­ta­tion to be bad.

“Some­times the temp­ta­tion to be bad is very big. It is very strong. So, my mes­sage to­day is to re­sist the temp­ta­tion to be bad and be brave about it be­cause you have to be brave to re­sist that temp­ta­tion.”

For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs Min­is­ter Sean Sobers, who al­so spoke at the func­tion, en­cour­aged the grad­u­ates to ap­ply the lessons of grit, de­ter­mi­na­tion and courage they learnt at Cedar Grove as they en­ter sec­ondary school. He told them to be wary of the dig­i­tal world as so­cial me­dia could some­times dis­tort re­al­i­ty.

“Don’t mea­sure your worth by likes, fol­lows, or fil­ters. Stay ground­ed. Stay re­al. Most im­por­tant­ly, stay you,” he said.

The stu­dents al­so heard words of ad­vice from Mara­bel­la West Coun­cil­lor Michael Al­i­bo­cas who told them they should not al­low any­one to pre­vent them from achiev­ing their goals.

“I am here stand­ing in front of you as an ex­am­ple of not giv­ing up on my dreams. Stay fo­cused on your goals and be re­al to your­self, put God first and be thank­ful for life,” he said.

All the grad­u­ates re­ceived tro­phies in dif­fer­ent dis­ci­plines and fields.

The Prin­ci­pal’s Chal­lenge Tro­phy was award­ed to Sairah Badree. The Best All Round Stu­dent was Adri­an Al­lum and the Most Out­stand­ing Stu­dent was Jean-Luc Ram­gar­i­on.