The Programme of Advancement through Health and Education (PATH) is being hailed by a former beneficiary for “levelling the playing field”.

Doctoral candidate Jordon Freeman was presented with the PATH Trailblazer Award by the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, during the 2024 PATH Top Achiever’s Awards Ceremony on April 11.

The event was held at the Spanish Court Hotel in New Kingston under the theme: ‘Celebrating Empowerment through Education’.

Citing author, Debby Irving, Freeman said: “Sharing the burden of social discomfort is not simply a matter of helping someone else feel good.

“It’s about levelling the playing field in pursuit of nurturing individual and collective potential.”

Freeman said that since 2002, PATH has given its beneficiaries purpose, access, time and honour.

“You have enabled us to look beyond our difficult circumstances and strive for a better future. You have provided us with the resources and support we need to pursue and achieve our dreams. You have helped us to understand and appreciate that it’s not where or when we started in this race of life, we can achieve greatness in life,” Freeman said.

He also lauded PATH for affording students the opportunity to demonstrate that they can be great, upstanding and accomplished in their own right.

The former PATH beneficiary attended Excelsior High School and went on to The University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona, where he pursued an undergraduate degree in biotechnology.

In September 2016, he commenced a Master of Philosophy (MPhil) in Biotechnology, also at UWI.

The MPhil was upgraded to continue work on his thesis, which focuses on the characterisation of starch from ackee seeds and the potential for industrial utilisation.

Freeman is the proud recipient of the 2022 Prime Minister’s Youth Award for Excellence, and a 2023 Young Leaders of the Americas Initiative (YLAI) fellow.

Among his other accolades are medallist in the Global Entrepreneurship World Cup, recipient of the Governor General’s Achievement Award and winner of the UWI Three Minute Thesis competition.

Freeman highlighted that he made excellent use of the opportunities and support provided through PATH, to ensure he became a better and more successful version of himself.

PATH is a conditional cash transfer programme funded by the Government of Jamaica and the World Bank, which is aimed at delivering benefits by way of grants to the neediest and most vulnerable Jamaicans.

The programme also offers back-to-school assistance and annual tertiary grants to student beneficiaries.

Photo caption (L-R): Minister of Labour and Social Security Pearnel Charles Jr (left) presents Jordon Freeman with the 2024 Programme of Advancement through Health and Education (PATH) Trailblazer Award, during the PATH Top Achiever’s Awards Ceremony at the Spanish Court Hotel in New Kingston on April 11, 2024

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