The 2023 Rhodes Scholar is encouraging Caribbean youth not to doubt their abilities.
Alyssa Mohammed gave that advice on Tuesday at State House, Government Hill, St Michael, after she was announced as the winner of the prestigious international postgraduate award.
“I always say you may feel these things are for someone else or for somebody better than you, but believe in yourself. We as people, we can do it,” a teary-eyed Mohammed said.
During the short ceremony, Mohammed was overcome with emotions after Secretary of the Rhodes Scholarship selection committee Bertha Pilgrim announced her name.
The 23-year-old Trinidadian is a graduate of the University of the West Indies Open Campus with a Bachelor of Science in Sociology. She is the first scholar in her family.
She has a passion for gender issues and told reporters she was looking forward to learning at the University of Oxford and giving back to the Caribbean.
“The gender issues in the Caribbean are nothing new. We know about the violence, the sexual assault and I have a history of working with women’s organising in Trinidad and a bit regionally, so I am excited to see what the macro perspective of Oxford’s education in Sociology would be able to bring, not only to me personally, but what I would be able to give back to the Caribbean,” Mohammed said.
The Rhodes Scholarship is an international postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford. The award began in 1902 and is the oldest graduate scholarship in the world. (TG)