Twenty-one-year-old Bahamian Jervon Sands is the 2024 Rhodes Scholar for the Commonwealth Caribbean.
Secretary of the Commonwealth Caribbean Rhodes Scholarship Selection Committee, Bertha Pilgrim, made the announcement at State House, on Tuesday evening.
Mr. Sands will study for the Master of Sciences (MSc) in Environmental Change and Management, and MSc in Sustainability, Enterprise and the Environment at the University of Oxford, in the United Kingdom, in October 2024.
After the announcement, the Rhodes Scholar stated: “This is an unimaginable, exciting opportunity and I am very grateful…. I am very excited about the work I will be doing, and am looking forward… to working in the region…when I return from my studies….”
He said at the end of his studies he will return to the Bahamas to work within Government and in other institutions throughout the Caribbean to help promote education on these issues.
When asked about his choice of study, Mr. Sands stated: “The climate crisis is one of the most pressing problems, …and I want to be a part of making solutions to inform the Caribbean and safeguard Caribbean countries.”
He has a First Class Honours degree in Applied Physics from the College of St. Benedict and St. John’s University.
President of Barbados, Her Excellency The Most Honourable Dame Sandra Mason, who chaired the Selection Committee, described the 10 finalists as “a very wonderful group of young people”.
Dame Sandra continued: “Every year we, as the Rhodes Scholarship Committee, are handed a platter of very excellent young people; very brilliant, and to my mind this augurs extremely well for the future of the Caribbean.”
Four of the interviewed candidates were from Trinidad and Tobago, three were from Guyana, and one each from Antigua, the Bahamas and Barbados.
The Rhodes Scholarship is the world’s preeminent and oldest graduate fellowship, based at the University of Oxford since 1903.
The Rhodes selection process aims to choose young people with proven academic excellence who show exceptional character, leadership, the energy to use their talents to the full, and a commitment to solving humanity’s challenges.