Dr Barry Wint Memorial Scholarship names 151 new recipients as past awardee nears medical degree

The Dr Barry Wint Memorial Scholarship has reached its second year, with 151 students named as new recipients at the latest award ceremony.

Yanique Jackson, who received the honour in 2024, returned to the event to reflect on how the support had shaped her path through medical school. She told the gathering she felt blessed, elated and deeply grateful, and said she was close to tears when she thought back to the financial strain of paying tuition while holding down full-time employment.

The Ministry of Health opportunity, she said, allowed her to remain enrolled. She is now in her final year, completing clinical rotations at Mapen Hospital as she works toward her medical degree.

Jackson also delivered a testimonial on behalf of the first-year cohort at the ceremony. She traced her decision to study medicine to 2017, when her nephew was diagnosed with neuroblastoma. While he received care at UI Hospital, doctors, nurses and the wider hospital team supported him and her family through a difficult period.

Before he passed, he said to her, "Auntie Kim, you're going to be the best doctor ever." That moment, she explained, became the force that pushed her to continue toward becoming a doctor.

Organisers used the second annual programme to expand the pool of supported students, with Jackson's progress from financial struggle to final-year clinician offered as an example of the award's intended impact.