QC student named Guyana’s Youth Environmental Speaker 

Queen’s College student Vasanna Persaud on Monday was announced as Guyana’s National Youth Environmental Speaker and now has the opportunity to represent the country at any regional and international environment-related competition in the future.
Launched in March, “Shout” – a collaborative effort between non-governmental organisation (NGO) Recover Guyana, and the Education Ministry – saw the initial participation of over 85 secondary schools.
Following an essay submission on what sustainable changes they would make to their environment if money was not an issue, only 30 schools moved forward to the next phase at the Ramada Princess Hotel, Georgetown, on Monday during which World Environment Day was also celebrated.
Following a two-and-a-half-minute prepared speech on approved environment-based topics, the top ten were selected to move on to the impromptu speech round during which they were required to answer a question from one of the ten judges on the spot.
Following Shout’s three phases, Persaud was chosen as the top speaker, receiving a prize package valued at $300,000, including an environmental award, a laptop PC, one-year free fibre internet from Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Co (GTT), a health voucher from UltraCare Medical Centre Inc and a cash prize.
A cheque of $500,000 representative in value of a cash grant, training and technical expertise was also handed over to Queen’s College and they too will receive one-year free fibre internet from GTT.
In second place was Aryanne Singh of Marian Academy, who received a prize package valued at $250,000 while third place was awarded to Saahil Hemraj of Skeldon Line Path Secondary School who received a prize package amounting to $175,000.
The top three essay submissions from Zeeburg Secondary School, West Demerara Secondary and Queen’s College were also recognised, the latter of whom was awarded the prize for the best essay.
Additionally, the Best Speaker Award was copped by West Demerara Secondary School, Most Influential Speech Award by Qayyim Academy and the Environment Impact Speech Award by Queen’s College.
All participants were awarded tokens and certificates while the top ten each went away with Environmental Recognition Awards.
The top ten participating schools were: Zeeburg Secondary School, ISA Islamic School, Essequibo Islands Secondary School, Marian Academy, Skeldon Line Path Secondary School, Queen’s College, West Demerara Secondary School, Qayyim Academy, The New Guyana School, and President’s College.