Almost 2,000 College of The Bahamas students who have achieved the academic distinction of earning a cumulative grade point average of at least 3.00 for the 2012-2013 academic year were honored for their dedication and perseverance during a Student Success Ceremony held at the college's Oakes Field Campus.
Hailed as role models to their peers, the students were awarded honor pins for earning their respective place on the Dean's List and President's List, a coveted honor.
Dean's List honoree, Ivanna Gaitor, an Art major, beamed as she was recognized for her outstanding achievement.
"I am glad that they have this kind of event celebrating students and their success. I know some people who come here from 8 a.m. and leave at 8 p.m. -- been there, done that. That is a struggle that everyone has to go through at some point being here, so it is good to have this opportunity to celebrate your achievement," she said.
Ivanna and many others were applauded by their fist-pumping and cheering contemporaries.
According to Matthew Walker, a law and criminal justice major, who aspires to be among the 2014 Commencement Class and is a President's List honoree, time management is key.
"[It takes] putting your best effort into the completion of your work, not just giving mediocre work, but making sure what you have presented is the best representation of yourself," he said.
Hoping to encourage and inspire the students, guest speaker Teo Cooper, a faculty member in the School of Education at COB, reflected on his life's journey. He told the students that despite the challenges of poverty and instability that he faced growing up, he still had a "burning desire to excel." He graduated at the top of his class from primary school, graduated with honors from high school and was the first person in his family to graduate from college.
He told the honorees that he lives by the adage, "Life is 10 percent of what happens to you and 90 percent of how you respond to it."
"Students it was not easy, but I have learnt that nothing that is worth having comes easily. So guard your passion. There are times when you have to believe in yourself, even if you have to believe in yourself all by yourself," he said.
He encouraged the students to insist on being qualified in order to take their rightful position in society and to persevere while in college.
"It may take some time and sometimes college may seem like an endless journey, but look at me. I am about to finish my doctorate [degree] next year and I will still be in my 20s. You will come to learn that it is not the destination that is the most important, but the experience, the lessons and the things that happen along the way," he said.
Students, who for the academic year 2012-2013 obtained a GPA of 3.50 with a minimum of 12 credit hours for each semester were awarded honor pins for the President's List; while students who obtained a GPA of 3.00 with a minimum of 12 credit hours for the Fall 2012 and Spring 2013 semesters achieved the distinction of being on the Dean's List. In total, there were 110 President's List honorees, and 1,824 combined Dean's List honorees.
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