A GROUP of students from the Cyril Potter College of Education (CPCE) won three prizes in the Ministry of Education (MoE) Spark Programme, which held its closing ceremony on Monday at the National Centre for Education Resource Development (NCERD), Kingston, Georgetown.

The CPCE group called “Service over Wealth” included students Crystal Cramer, Joel Bunbury, Tagedevi Roopnarine, Deborah Darlington, Crystal Johnson, Grace Hutson and Junita Rampersaud won prizes for the “Most inspirational Leadership Presentation” and “Most Dedicated Team on the Leadership Track” and “The Best Innovative AI Project.”

They were awarded US$150 each for the first two categories and a laptop for the other category.
New Amsterdam Secondary School student, Sarvesh Tahal won the prize for “Most Passionate Student on the leadership track”, which has a prize of US$50.

Hutson, from CPCE, won a laptop for “Outstanding student on the leadership track” while Guyana Technical Institute (GTI) student, Othniel Anthony won “Most Promising Innovative Influencer.”
The students were presented with prizes based on their participation in the Spark Programme, which was implemented by the ministry in collaboration with the LEAD Mindset, JASECI Labs and BCS Technology. The programme was launched in March.

A total of 136 students participated in the programme, which ran for eight weeks with two tracks: one that focused on developing the leadership and innovative mindset, while the other saw participants exposed to the AI technical track.

The programme was also aimed at equipping young people with the skills to leverage technology to spark innovation and economic opportunities, and also to equip young people with a leadership mindset called the LEAD Mindset, which fosters thinking outside the box.

The AI track taught the learners how to code and use the same instruments used by the biggest companies in the world to build Artificial Intelligence (AI) products and services.
The participating students were from Christianburg-Wismar Secondary School, Mckenzie High School, Queen’s College, the Bishops’ High School, St Joseph High School, St Rose’s High School, St Stanislaus College, President’s College, Berbice High School, New Amsterdam Secondary School, West Demerara Secondary School and the Anna Regina Secondary School.

Learners from the Government Technical Institute and teacher trainees from the Cyril Potter College of Education also participated.
The project also featured a competition element that saw the participants being tasked with producing a video that encouraged young people to become influencers and changemakers in the world.

The participants were judged on originality, innovativeness, commercialisation potential, level of complexity in engineering and level of completeness.
Speaking at the closing ceremony, Chief Education Officer (CEO) Dr Marcel Hutson commended the programme, saying it equipped participants with a number of vital skills.
“This initiative provided participants with the opportunity to improve their communication skills, build confidence, recognise leadership potential and to utilise STEM skills to their developmental advantage,” Dr Hutson said.