DIAMONDS IN THE RUBBLE

Published June 24, 2012 | By

Tivoli triplets win big
FGFS helping sisters who earned scholarships to US university
BY DONNA HUSSEY-WHYTE Sunday Observer staff reporter [email protected]
Sunday, June 24, 2012

THEY complete each other’s sentences. They even dress alike sometimes, and they attended the same basic, primary and high schools. So it was only natural that 18-year-old Tivoli Gardens triplets — Cadine, Colleen and Colliet Bramwell — also excelled academically together, earning themselves half scholarships to St Agustine University in North Carolina, in the United States.
The triplets, who originally received the scholarships through the Rotary Club of St Andrew, earned 31 subjects collectively, with mostly distinctions and credits.
Tivoli Gardens triplets (from left) Cadine, Colleen and Colliet Bramwell are all smiles as they speak about getting scholarships to St Agustine University in North Carolina, USA after earning 31 subjects collectively, with mostly distinctions and credits. The scholarships were given through the Rotary Club of St Andrew and will be taken over by First Global Financial Services. (Photo: Joseph Wellington)
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Recognising the triplets’ need and their potential, First Global Financial Services (FGFS) came on board and provided supplementary financing to complement the scholarships they got from the university.
The Rotary Club, a service organisation with a long history in Jamaica, always seeks areas in which to offer service to the country, and last year they chose education. This mission coincided with that of FGFS and was taken on as a special project by the club’s president Robert Drummond, who is also president of the financial services institution.
According to Drummond, the club wanted to identify 10 students from both traditional and non-traditional schools who would fit the criteria for the scholarships being offered.
As they sat in the editorial meeting room at the Jamaica Observer’s Kingston offices two Saturdays ago, the smiling trio, without being asked, arranged themselves so that they were sitting in the order in which they had been born with Cadine, the eldest, at the far left, Colleen in the middle, and Colliet on the right.
Cadine earned five distinctions and six credits, Colleen earned three distinctions, five credits and two passes, and Colliet earned four distinctions, four credits and two passes.
While Cadine is still unsure which area of study she will be pursuing come August, Colleen is bent on studying medicine and is presently pursuing an 11th subject, Chemistry, which should help her get even closer to this goal. Colliet wants to pursue studies in psychology.
The girls’ attachment to each other was apparent as they spoke of being overjoyed, not only for getting into university overseas on full scholarships, but of taking this journey together.
“Each morning we have conference in our living room and discuss what we want to do and strategies to reach there,” one of the sisters explained.
Despite living in the West Kingston community of Tivoli Gardens, the girls said they were in no way affected by their surroundings.
They attended Denham Town Primary School, then Tivoli Gardens High School, but when they were not in school they could be found inside their house.
“We stayed inside all the time,” Cadine explained.
“Where we are, life is very safe and we feel very comfortable. We know that the violence is there but we are not in direct contact with it,” Colliet added.
“If you asked people in our community who know us they will tell you that we are always inside,” Colleen chipped in, her sister Colliet completing the sentence in unison with her.
This prompted them to burst into laughter as they explained how that uncanny ability to finish each other’s sentences often startled and confused others. At one point their mother gave them strict instructions to break out of the habit.
“We don’t really have a lot to do but sit and talk,” Colliet said. “We talk a lot!”
“Colliet talks a lot, she is the talkative one,” her sisters chirped, again in unison, prompting another round of laughter.
“When we were in primary school our teachers separated us, we were placed in different classes,” Colleen said. “We didn’t come together until second form in high school.”
But the girls said academically they have always done well.
While in grade 11 at Tivoli High, Colliet was made head girl after being voted deputy head girl the year before. Her sisters were prefects.
“Sometimes we would play her role,” Colleen said as they all laughed. “The first formers didn’t know us apart and they would come to us thinking we were the head girl, and we would just play along,” Cadine explained.
Colliet has also been a peer counsellor since grade nine.
The trio was quick to inform the Sunday Observer that despite their similarities, they all have different personalities, and enjoy different hobbies.
Cadine, arriving in the world just minutes ahead of her sisters, was described as shy and quiet, a loner with a passion for books.
Colleen, born second, loves researching food and fashion and the sciences, and is described by her sisters as “friendly”.
Colliet is the extrovert who likes to lead, talk, watch television, cook and “be around encouraging people”.
“I don’t love the books,” she confessed. “But I do it (study) to get ahead.”
She is also the family cook and, like her sisters, said she loves attending church.
“Church is important,” she said. “You have to put God first because He has been good to us.”
The youngest triplet was also a Youth Ambassador to the US under a special programme run by the American Embassy, and is involved in a homework programme set up in Trench Town where she helps to prepare students for GSAT and CXC exams.
The sisters recounted for the Sunday Observer the unusual circumstances leading to all three getting scholarships to study overseas.
Five letters offering to take care of the school fees of needy students wishing to study abroad had been sent to their school by the Rotary Club of St Andrew for the selection of potential candidates. However, staff at the school felt that despite all three sisters performing so well academically, it would have been unfair to give so many opportunities to just one family, so only Cadine was pre-selected to vie for the scholarships.
She received a letter from her teacher about the scholarship being offered and was told that she would have to get through the interview process. She recalled that she received the letter on the same day an essay was to be submitted as part of the qualification process.
With Cadine being the only one chosen at this point for the scholarship, Colleen and Colliet applied to Shortwood Teachers’ College, where they were both accepted.
But after hearing about the situation and assessing the performance of the other two sisters, Drummond, along with other members of the selection committee, decided that all three sisters deserved scholarships.
“The application process was a full-time job,” the First Global Financial Services head said, having personally taken on the role of walking the girls through it. He explained how the nominees had to attend workshops and seminars and score passing grades on their Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT).
“The Bramwell girls are the success of the project,” Drummond said proudly. “The Rotary Club of St Andrew designed and saw the project through for this year, but First Global will be taking over the project. They (First Global) have been looking for opportunities in the form of education, and so this is very fitting. First Global will see it through to the completion of their bachelor’s degree. We are fully committed for the next four years. So what started as a one-year project for the club is now a four-year project for First Global.”