When Aaron Waugh, 11-year-old graduate of Jessie Ripoll Primary School, was told he was the top-performing boy for the 2023 sitting of the Primary Exit Profile (PEP) examinations, he was overjoyed.
He and top girl Shannon-Elise Barrett, of Kensington Primary School in St Catherine, were yesterday announced among the list of 32 PEP students to receive government scholarships this year.
Both students were placed at Campion College and have been awarded the Guardian Group Foundation Scholarship.
Aaron said he studied very hard and went to a lot of extra PEP lessons during each day of the week, and now he has seen the silver lining and the fruit of his labour.
“It was a very hard process,” he told The Gleaner yesterday, noting that he was relieved when he was told some weeks ago that he had been placed at Campion College.
“I felt accomplished, and I felt like it was really worth it,” Aaron said.
Looking forward to Campion
He is now looking forward to the different activities he has heard are available at Campion College, the new faces he will meet, and the grand opportunities the school has been well-known in St Andrew for providing its students.
He is also excited to be going to the same secondary-level school his older brother, third-former Abraham, now attends.
“He has set this mark for me to follow. I feel like I am following it very well, and I’m living up to the expectations of the Waugh family,” Aaron said.
His mother, Annice Waugh, beamed with even more joy than her son on Sunday while speaking with The Gleaner.
She said it was the strong faith her son has in God that made him confident enough to know that he could be victorious in the end and receive the desires of his heart.
“Faith and work because the Bible talks about faith without work is dead, so we put in a lot of effort and we pray and we have faith,” she said.
She then explained why she was overjoyed about her son being the top performing boy in PEP for this year.
“We were aiming for the government scholarship, but this tops it all. He exceeded our expectations,” said his mother, a scientist and assistant lecturer who is pursuing a PhD in physiology at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona.
Mrs Waugh told The Gleaner that Aaron’s brother previously received a top award in Kingston, and Aaron was challenged to do better.
“They used to have a friendly rivalry, and we used to say ‘If you are going to outshine your brother, you will have to do better than that’.”
Now, Aaron has done just that.
His mother noted that her husband, Garland Waugh, is also proud of his son.
Aaron, whose favourite football club is Manchester City, said he hopes to become both a footballer and an entrepreneur.
“I really enjoy the sport, football. I just have a connection to it … . An entrepreneur because I really like business. I like to be a leader in some way,” he said.
