17-year-old US-based Guyanese scholar meets President

Kelly Hyles, the 17-year-old Guyanese girl who was accepted into 21 colleges across the United States of America, including eight Ivy League universities, on Thursday met with President David Granger at his Georgetown office.

A Ministry of the Presidency (MoTP) statement said that President Granger congratulated the young scholar, referring to her as a product of Guyanese society and a citizen of whom the nation is proud.

“Everything I do, everything the Cabinet and the Government does is so that our young people can have a bright future… This country can only be developed [with] intelligent and educated persons like you. We are happy and encouraged by your achievements,” President Granger said.

The teenager was accompanied by her mother, Anetta Earl; her aunt, Shaundelle Inniss-Munroe; her uncle, Kenneth Earl and social activist Mark Benschop, while the President was accompanied by Minister of State, Joseph Harmon.

Hyles and her mother arrived in Guyana on Sunday evening to be part of the 50th Independence Anniversary celebrations on May 26, the same day she would be celebrating her 18th birthday.

Hyles was accepted into some of the most distinguished tertiary institutions in the US, including Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Dartmouth, Cornell, Brown, Columbia and the University of Pennsylvania, and has decided on Harvard, where she will be pursuing studies in either bio-chemistry or neuroscience.

Hyles migrated to the USA to live with her mother in 2009 at the age of 11.

President David Granger in conversation with  Kelly Hyles
President David Granger in conversation with Kelly Hyles