Supporting a student through Medical School

There are many underprivileged youth with bright minds and a promising future. Jamaica Inn is doing what it can to help support them by assisting in paying for education.
Kem-Maria McCook is Jamaica Inn’s first sponsored student.  A first-year student at UWI Med School, she attended St. Mary High School (SMHS) where she was first in her class every year. She passed 8 CXC subjects with distinction and had the best CAPE results for SMHS where she sat Math, Physics, Chemistry and Biology.  She was also Deputy Head Girl, Valedictorian, Captain of the netball team, Activities Coordinator for the Quiz Club, Captain of the National Science Quiz team and 1st Runner-Up “Miss St. Mary High.”
These accomplishments, while outstanding under any circumstances, are all the more formidable given the reality of her life.  She is one of 24 children for her father with whom she has had almost no contact and who has provided no financial support.  Her mother, who is unemployed, has had little to do with her since she started high school.  While at SMHS, she lived with an older sister, a basic school teacher with 2 children of her own in Pagee Beach, one of the poorer communities in Port Maria.  No wonder Mrs. Juliet Frazer-Sadar, Vice Principal of SMHS wrote, “Kem-Maria is an unforgettable student.  She is one of the most outstanding students to have attended St. Mary High School both from an academic as well as social perspective.”
Given her academic performance, she has gained acceptance to the MBBS programme on the subsidized tuition rate (ie. her tuition fee will be $575,265.00 per annum and not $2,446,850.00 that full fee students pay). While the subsidized rate is significantly less than the full fee rate, it is still a daunting task for Kem-Maria to find the required funds, 50% of which must be paid by September and the remainder by January 2013.
Jamaica Inn was pleased to sponsor Kem-Maria in part of her tuition for her first year at UWI Med School and hope to be able to continue.
Best of luck to her in her studies!