SANTA CRUZ, St Elizabeth (A BEACON OF EXCELLENCE) : Hampton High's 18 y-o Alexia Davidson first JAMAICAN student accepted to prestigious Yale-NUS....With 18 CSEC/CAPE subjects earned her a scholarship to the 300-year-old US-based Yale University

BY GARFIELD MYERS Editior-at-large South/Central Bureau myersg@jamaicaobserver.com  Sunday, June 07, 2015 

SANTA CRUZ, St Elizabeth — Pride, joy and open admiration are overflowing when Alexia Davidson's parents speak about her.

Alexia Davidson with one of  her many trophies

"My daughter is probably one of the most dedicated students anyone will ever find," said O'neil Davidson, when the Jamaica Observer sat with parents and daughter at their home in Southfield, St Elizabeth last week.

"She has been an 'A' student from kindergarten all the way through high school," said Davidson of his 18-year-old daughter who graduates from the prestigious all-girls Hampton School in a week's time.

Alexia's mother, Kay Davidson, who pointed the Sunday Observer to a cabinet full of trophies testifying to her daughter's academic achievements, also hailed the teen's success as a student.

"I couldn't ask for more as a mother, I couldn't ask for more from a child," said Kay Davidson, who is a teacher at Hampton which, for more than 150 years, has produced many of Jamaica's leading women.

Without doubt, Alexia's determined and focused approach -- which has reaped her 10 distinctions and two credits in CSEC exams and six distinctions at CAPE, among other academic successes -- was pivotal in winning a scholarship to one of the most sought after universities, Yale-NUS in Singapore.

A partnership of the 300-year-old US-based Yale University and the National University of Singapore, Yale-NUS accepted its first class in 2013. It is tailored to deliver a four-year liberal arts programme to the brightest and best.

Those in the know say that the meeting of East and West, explicit in the formation of the Singapore-based university, underlines the growing influence and power of Asia, not only economically, but socially and culturally.

"The Yale-NUS Common Curriculum, taken by all students, spans the central knowledge of the Eastern and Western traditions," reads a promotional insert on the college's website.

Alexia Davidson with her parents O’neil and Kay Davidson.
 (PHOTOS: GREGORY BENNETT)

"It is no longer sufficient to read only the great works of the West -- a global 21st century career and life requires intercultural communication. Reading Confucius and the Bhagavad Gita alongside Aristotle and Shakespeare, as well as engaging in broad yet rigorous science and social science coursework and research, will train you to think within and between cultures and disciplines to solve complex problems, which is an essential, if not the essential, 21st century professional skill," the website said.

Leading Jamaican academician Dr Dennis Minott, whose A-QuEST programme prepares top Jamaican students for colleges abroad, told the Sunday Observer that only the top three per cent of applicants make it through the doors of Yale-NUS.

In the case of Alexia Davidson, she is the very first Jamaican. It's an accomplishment Minott believes is worthy of the greatest respect. more