Sara-Lee McLaughlin was awarded a tertiary scholarship by The Sagicor Foundation and will shortly begin the Bachelor of Arts in Culinary Arts and Management at the University of Technology. A 2015 graduate of St Hilda’s High School, Sara-Lee is completing the HEART NVQJ Level 3 course in commercial food preparation. She recently successfully completed a six-week work experience programme with Sandals in Ocho Rios. A hard worker, Sara-Lee’s career goal is to “become a prominent chef and an entrepreneur of two businesses; a gourmet restaurant and a pastry shop.” Sara-Lee said that her motivation comes from “the desire to excel and create an uplifted standard of living for myself, my family and the future.”
Sara-Lee is the youngest of four daughters for Carlton and Arnett McLaughlin. Her proud parents are absolutely delighted with their daughter’s achievements. They said “when she was given the name Sara-Lee we had no idea that there was a pastry chef with that name. It was some time after that we saw the name in a shop. She has lived up to the name with her desire to be a chef.”
Her mother Arnett, remembers that from about the age of seven, Sara-Lee would make macaroni cheese and bake cakes using cake mix when she got home after prep school. She liked to help her mother in the kitchen and would climb up on a chair to reach the counter.
There were over 600 applicants for tertiary awards and Sara-Lee was one of 31 successful awardees present at the ceremony at the Pegasus Hotel in Kingston on Thursday August 24, 2017. Chairman of the Sagicor Foundation, R Danny Williams, who was part of the interview panel for the selection, felt that ‘they all deserved a break’. GSAT Scholarships were awarded to 37 students.
President and CEO, Sagicor Group Jamaica Christopher Zacca said that “a Sagicor scholar should be a top performer and be a role model to others.”
The keynote address was given by Damion Crawford.
The audience was privileged to witness a few of the country’s most brilliant young minds receiving well needed financial support to help them in their educational pursuits.
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