Sascha Wil­son

Se­nior Re­porter

sascha.wil­son@guardian.co.tt

Fol­low­ing an over­whelm­ing out­pour­ing of love and sup­port from across T&T, 17-year-old Krisann Be­dassie will now be pur­su­ing her dream of at­tend­ing the Yale Young Glob­al Schol­ars pro­gramme at Yale Uni­ver­si­ty.

What be­gan as a daunt­ing fi­nan­cial hur­dle has trans­formed in­to a heart­warm­ing tale of gen­eros­i­ty and kind­ness, as Krisann and her moth­er Sus­sanah Be­dassie, through the gen­er­ous do­na­tions of cit­i­zens, raised more than the US$4,000 re­quired for ac­com­mo­da­tion. 

The Form Five St Joseph’s Con­vent, San Fer­nan­do, stu­dent won a mer­it-based schol­ar­ship, mak­ing her the first T&T na­tion­al ad­mit­ted in­to the renowned pro­gramme. Though the schol­ar­ship cov­ered ac­com­mo­da­tion for Krisann dur­ing the two-week pro­gramme, she re­quired ad­di­tion­al ac­com­mo­da­tion for her­self, as well as for her moth­er who would be ac­com­pa­ny­ing her.

Shar­ing the ex­cit­ing news yes­ter­day, she ex­pressed her heart­felt thanks to every per­son who gave fi­nan­cial, spir­i­tu­al and moral sup­port. 

Re­call­ing her joy when she re­ceived her let­ter of ad­mis­sion from Yale, she said, “My mom and I cel­e­brat­ed that mo­ment with tears in our eyes and hope in our hearts. But be­hind our smiles, we qui­et­ly car­ried the weight of what re­mained—a fi­nan­cial gap that, at first, felt in­sur­mount­able.  Yet, by God’s grace, our sto­ry reached the ears and hearts of those who chose to act. What fol­lowed was noth­ing short of mirac­u­lous.”

From a Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment to non-gov­ern­men­tal or­gan­i­sa­tions, small busi­ness­es, her al­ma mater, her school, to friends, fam­i­ly, and com­plete strangers, she said, “You didn’t just do­nate; you spoke life in­to us. You of­fered prayers, words of wis­dom, mes­sages of en­cour­age­ment, and con­nect­ed us to oth­ers who could help. You re­mind­ed us that gen­eros­i­ty has no price tag and that kind­ness, in all its forms, is what moves moun­tains.”

The young­ster said T&T’s great­est re­source is not oil and gas but its peo­ple.

“We are a na­tion rich in heart, courage, and com­mu­ni­ty. And I am so proud to rep­re­sent you as I take this next step on the in­ter­na­tion­al stage,” she said.

Krisann en­cour­aged oth­ers—no mat­ter their age, back­ground, or fi­nan­cial stand­ing- to be­lieve that they are ca­pa­ble of any­thing with de­ter­mi­na­tion, and God.