Black Immigrant Daily News
Trinidad’s Alyssa Mohammed has been selected at the Rhodes Scholar for the Commonwealth Caribbean for 2023.
An emotional Mohammed greeted local media on Tuesday, November 8 at State House after it was announced that she outperformed the other 10 candidates hailing from Barbados, Grenada, Antigua, St Lucia and Trinidad and Tobago.
“I have spent an amazing few days with all of the candidates and as they said, any of them could have gotten it, probably should have gotten it, but it feels amazing,” she said with a nervous chuckle.
“It is such an honour and I can’t wait to give back to our Caribbean Community and to our women,” Mohammed added.
The first of her family to receive the opportunity to study overseas, the University of West Indies graduate who has a First Class Honours degree in Sociology, will be heading to Oxford University in October 2023 to further her studies. She shared that she wanted to pursue a Master of Science (MSc) in Sociology or Master of Law (LLM) in Sociology and Demography.
“I am very passionate about our social situation here. My heart is with gender so it is Sociology with a gender focus. The gender issues in the Caribbean is nothing new to us, we know about the violence, we know about the sexual assault.
“I am excited to see what the macro perspective of Oxford education in sociology would be able to bring. Not only to me personally, but what I will be able to give back to the Caribbean community not only in women and gender issues but broader issues like crime,” Mohammed added.
Her Excellency, The Most Honourable, Dame Sandra Mason, President of Barbados who chaired the selection committee, praised this year’s scholarship candidates. She expressed that she hoped the number of winners could be increased in the future.
“We are hoping that it could be increased to two or three because we have the talent in the Caribbean,” said the President.
“To choose one person has been extremely difficult and because we had to choose one, we had to choose well. One of the things that we always say, is that out of this group of young persons, talented young persons, every single one of them could have been given the Rhodes Scholarship.”
NewsAmericasNow.com