Scotiabank yesterday issued a call to all youths, including Guyanese, who want to make a difference for themselves and their communities when it announced an international youth award programme called the “Scotiabank Bright Future Young Leaders”.
The new award programme will recognize youths who make outstanding contributions to their communities and it is the first of its kind for Scotiabank, the bank said in a press release last evening.
This award programme will build on the momentum of the bank’s highly successful global philanthropic programme – Bright Future – launched in January 2011, the release stated.
Meanwhile, Guyana will be among the countries participating in the first year of the programme as well as Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, the British Virgin Islands, Canada, the Cayman Islands, Chile, Costa Rica, Dominica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Grenada, Jamaica, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Puerto Rico, St. Kitts & Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Maarten, St. Vincent & The Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
According to the release, the Scotiabank Bright Future Young Leaders Award programme is open to youth, ages 16 to 24, who reside in the participating countries and to be eligible, applicants must reside in a participating country, complete 100 hours of volunteerism in a minimum of three of the Bank’s six philanthropic pillars – education, arts, health, social services, sports and environment – and log their hours at the award programme’s website: (www.scotiayoungleaders.com) and submit an essay describing the impact of their volunteerism on charitable organizations, their community and themselves.
The essays will be reviewed by an international panel of jurors comprised of Veronica Lacey, President and CEO of The Learn- ing Partnership, Tessa Bonhomme, Olympic & World Champion, Ice Hockey – Canada, Sue Graham Parker, Senior Vice-President of Public, Corporate and Government Affairs for Scotiabank, Dr. Rosalea Hamilton, Scotia-bank Chair, Entrepreneur-ship and Development, at the University of Technology in Jamaica, and Jatnna Tavarez, President of Jatnna Productions.
In addition, the award programme will annually recognize 12 youths internationally who will be awarded CAD$2,500 to contribute to a charity of their choice and a tablet computer to keep for personal use.
In the Caribbean, Latin and Central America, the Scotiabank Bright Future programme focuses primarily on children and children’s causes.
This is the bank’s global philanthropic programme which brings together all of the bank’s charitable, social and community efforts and employee volunteer activities under one banner, the release noted.
And through the Bright Future programme, the bank’s charitable efforts are aimed at being relevant and responsive to the needs of each community at a grassroots level and provide support across the fields of health, arts, education, social services, sports and the environment, the release added.
