peter.christistopher@guardian.co.tt
For the fifth year in a row, a student of Lakshmi Girls’ Hindu College has won the President’s Medal.
Celine Roodal, of Kelly Village earned the accolade for the St Augustine school, for environmental studies, mathematics, information, communications technology and natural sciences.
Her president medal success has allowed her to continue the sequence of Lakshmi Girls’ students who secured the President’s Medal, starting with Shivrani Prabhudial (2015) and continuing with Priya Maraj (2016), Veshala Goon (2017) and Amrita Singh (2018). She revealed that Maraj’s win in 2016 served as an inspiration to her to aim for the medal.
“Having attended the same primary and secondary school as her, made it seem doable, so it really was a motivating factor,” she said.
Roodal said she did not think the school had discovered any secret formula success but said it was a combination of hard work between students and teachers.
“This achievement is very much doable once you put in the time and the effort. Just give it 100 per cent whatever it is you’re doing and you can also achieve this,” she said. She told Guardian Media that she plans to study Mechatronic Engineering in Canada next year.
While she was thrilled with her achievement, she admitted that she was a little sad that the late Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha general secretary Sat Maharaj, was not around to see the historic achievement. “I really hoped he was there to be a part of this joy,” said Roodal.
Roodal, who also plays table tennis, said that time management with regard to her studies as well as recognising the best time to study were the crucial factors to her success.
“I think time management was very important in studying for this so after school I would try to put in some effort trying to study but I also tried to study during the morning time because that’s when my brain is fresh and ready when to absorb information and I also tried to study on the weekends because I have a lot more hours to work with,” said Roodal. The 18-year-old was also a part of T&T’s Math Olympiad squad who competed in the International Olympiad in London in July. This too also affected her preparation, but she adjusted to suit.
“I tried to time manage so I could accommodate what I wanted to do. Studying for maths Olympiad as well as table tennis, I made time to do everything,” she said.