Port-of-Spain South MP Kei­th Scot­land ho­n­oured 37 young achiev­ers on Sat­ur­day, as the con­stituen­cy host­ed its first Day of Ex­cel­lence Youth Awards at City Hall, Port-of-Spain.

The event recog­nised out­stand­ing per­for­mances in aca­d­e­mics, sports, com­mu­ni­ty de­vel­op­ment and the cre­ative arts.

Scot­land said the cer­e­mo­ny was cre­at­ed to cel­e­brate young peo­ple who have dis­tin­guished them­selves and to mo­ti­vate oth­ers across the con­stituen­cy. He added that the awards will now be held an­nu­al­ly, with the sec­ond edi­tion sched­uled for 2026.

Awardees in­clud­ed:

Sports: Rus­sell Fran­cios, Cheina Steele, Cher­ine Steele, Za­hid Bis­nath, Jasani Daniel, Sameer Joseph, Zion Thomas, Shyan­na Coop­er, Aaliyah Alexan­der, Dail­ia Burke, An­dell Fras­er and Os­ei Jef­fers.

Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment: Jade John­son, Bri­an­na Pom­pey and Tamayah Wil­son.

Aca­d­e­mics: Ali­cia Payne, Sa­van­na Alexan­der, Lei-Lee Bo­neo, Makay­la Carr, Johnathon Dick­son, Sher­mer Gray and Os­ei Jef­fers.

Cre­ative Arts: Zane El­liot, Nicholas Doyle and Denyque Bobb.

Adam Panchu and Sarah Panchu al­so re­ceived spe­cial recog­ni­tion, adding to the list of prizes pre­sent­ed in aca­d­e­mics and sport.

Dur­ing his re­marks, Scot­land launched two new youth de­vel­op­ment ini­tia­tives that will be­gin in 2026. The Port-of-Spain South In­tern­ship Pro­gramme will of­fer three-month place­ments with­in the Of­fice of the Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment, giv­ing sev­er­al young peo­ple an op­por­tu­ni­ty to gain work ex­pe­ri­ence each year. He said the pro­gramme aims to help youths who of­ten strug­gle to se­cure jobs be­cause they lack ex­pe­ri­ence.

He al­so an­nounced the Port-of-Spain South Schol­ar­ship Pro­gramme, which will sup­port one young per­son, in the first in­stance, in pur­su­ing high­er ed­u­ca­tion in a field that is per­son­al­ly mean­ing­ful and aligned with na­tion­al eco­nom­ic needs.

Scot­land said both ini­tia­tives will ex­pand over time as re­sources al­low. He con­grat­u­lat­ed the awardees and thanked the fam­i­lies, teach­ers and men­tors who con­tin­ue to sup­port the de­vel­op­ment of young peo­ple in the con­stituen­cy.