Kim­ber­ly Mack­han

Pay at­ten­tion in class. This was the ad­vice that Chan­tal Cave, one of the two re­cip­i­ents of the Pres­i­dent's Gold Medal for this year, gave to oth­er stu­dents.

The oth­er re­cip­i­ent is Nadimah Mo­hammed of St Au­gus­tine Girls' High School.

Cave at­trib­uted her suc­cess to be­ing at­ten­tive in class­es, both at her al­ma mater St Joseph's Con­vent in Port-of-Spain and at her pri­vate class­es. "You have to dis­ci­pline your­self to pay at­ten­tion in class...It was an in­te­gral part of learn­ing for me, learn­ing in the class­room as my teach­ers taught," she said. "I tried to make the most of my time in my class­es and learn every­thing as it was be­ing taught and I did not hes­i­tate to ask my teach­ers ques­tions about the top­ics that I did not un­der­stand.

"It was like an in­tense form of con­cen­tra­tion and any­thing I did out­side of the class­room was more like a re­view of the work I al­ready learnt." Cave, 19, achieved grade ones in ten units, with all A pro­files in the field of sci­ence. She ex­pressed an in­ter­est in pur­su­ing a de­gree in med­i­cine at Ox­ford Uni­ver­si­ty in Eng­land. She said: "UWI (the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies) has ac­cept­ed me (as a can­di­date to read for a de­gree) med­ical sci­ences. I would like to go to Ox­ford and do med­i­cine. Pae­di­atrics in­ter­ests me. I want to help chil­dren." She was in a state of dis­be­lief af­ter learn­ing that she se­cured the high­est grades in Cape in T&T and earned the top na­tion­al schol­ar­ship for her per­for­mance in the ex­am­i­na­tion.

"I first heard about it from a school friend, my for­mer head girl, and I did not be­lieve her. I thought it was a joke," an ec­sta­t­ic Cave said. "I tried to calm my­self down but then I got an e-mail. It con­grat­u­lat­ed me. I still did not be­lieve it but then my dad called me and told me that it was true. I was re­al­ly hap­py. I did not scream out loud but it was like an in­side scream. 'Thank god,' I said." Cave thanked both her par­ents and her teach­ers for their sup­port. "My par­ents pro­vid­ed a foun­da­tion of love and sup­port for me and they al­ways made me feel loved even if I did not achieve any­thing or re­ceive an award. They al­ways sup­port­ed me," she said. "I think I was al­so blessed with amaz­ing teach­ers. They were al­ways will­ing to help me and an­swer my ques­tions, it was en­cour­ag­ing." Cave's moth­er Cheryl-Ann ex­pressed grat­i­tude to God for her daugh­ter's suc­cess.

"I was not look­ing at (whether Chan­tal would at­tain) a schol­ar­ship. I was look­ing at her to do her very best. But we are thank­ful. It was her dream to do med­i­cine at Ox­ford (Uni­ver­si­ty) and I am hap­py," she said. "I think par­ents need to be sup­port­ive of their chil­dren and en­sure that they have a well-round­ed life be­cause it helps them deal with the chal­lenges that come." Cave's fa­ther, Chris­to, al­so dis­played a sense of joy in the aca­d­e­m­ic suc­cess of his daugh­ter. He told the Trinidad Guardian that the fam­i­ly would be cel­e­brat­ing with din­ner at Hilton Trinidad.