Confident and well-spoken, Lyford Cay International School (LCIS) Grade 7 student Melania Nixon stands out when she enters a room. Though she may not be as tall as some of her classmates, her personality and enthusiasm more than make up for it.
Melania joined LCIS in Fall 2019, as the second scholar to benefit from a generous $1.5M donation by the Peter N Thompson Family Trust to the LCIS Endowment for Scholarships & Financial Aid. The first student, announced earlier this year, was Heather Williams who is now in Grade 11.
Melania, a well-rounded student, is not only an able academic but also a skilled artist, musician and athlete. One of the highlights of her academic career was finishing as 2019 1st Runner Up in the renowned Primary School Student of the Year Competition. She is community-minded, having established her own charity organisation to support elderly homes, and has an entrepreneurial spirit, managing her own business offering lip glosses.
Though Melania joins LCIS as a strong student, the world-class International Baccalaureate (IB) curriculum at LCIS will challenge her in unique ways aimed at developing her to even greater heights. The school’s faculty to student ratio of 1 to 7 will ensure she receives individualised attention while enhancing her strengths. She plans to become a paediatrician when she graduates, and the strong college matriculation statistics of LCIS graduates mean that Melania will likely be accepted into her first-choice university and receive scholarship funding to attend.
Design is Melania’s favourite subject at LCIS. When asked why, she shared, “I get to work on projects and interact with other students. Our current unit focuses on marketing, so we get to create a commercial which helps us to learn how to plan a storyboard, use a camera and edit video.” The design class is part of the core curriculum for Grades 6-10 and challenges students to apply practical and creative thinking skills to solve problems.
Melania’s mother, Danella Nixon, shared her thoughts on her daughter’s experience at LCIS so far, stating, “Since Melania started LCIS, there has never been a quiet ride home. Every day, there is an exciting story to share. She has truly embraced the endless opportunities available to her. The classes offered at LCIS afford students the opportunity to stretch their thinking and go above and beyond just finding the answer for any particular question.”
Canadian Peter N Thomson was strongly committed to The Bahamas and passionate about the value of education. The significant investment of the Peter N Thomson Family Trust at LCIS validates the importance of this high-quality institution and has already expanded the school’s ability to share this type of learning with students from across The Bahamas who would not otherwise be able to afford it.
LCIS will open a new, state-of-the-art Secondary School campus in Fall 2020. There will be increased opportunities for Bahamian students to benefit from the world-class education the school offers through increased investment in scholarships. Interested families should visit the school’s website (www.lcis.bs) to apply or learn more.
Founded in 1962, Lyford Cay International School (LCIS) is a fully accredited international day school located in western New Providence offering an educational programme that inspires excellence. LCIS students and staff come from 46 different countries and speak 17 different languages. LCIS is the only school in The Bahamas to offer the International Baccalaureate curriculum to students from 18 months to 18 years. Upon graduation, LCIS students move on to top colleges and universities around the world www.lcis.bs
L-R: Danella Nixon, Mother of Melania Nixon; Melania Nixon, Grade 7 student and LCIS Thomson Trust Scholar; Andrew Raenden, Thomson Family Trust Representative
