Daviot Kelly, Staff Reporter

British High Commissioner Jeremy Cresswell (centre, back row) flashes the pearly whites with the 2007 Chevening scholars. The scholars are (from left, back row) Carla-Anne Harris-Roper, Edward Brightly, Adenike Stephenson and Marcus Goffe. (Seated, from left) Anneke Rousseau, Fritz Sawyers and Janielle Wallace. The high commissioner held a reception for them at his residence on Trafalgar Road, last Thursday.- photos by Winston Sill/Freelance Photographer

The magnificent seven are off to the United Kingdom. No, it has nothing to do with the famous heroes in U.S. westerns. This seven refers to the seven young, intelligent and outstanding Jamaicans who have been awarded the British Foreign Office's 2007 Chevening Scholarships.

This year's recipients are Carla-Anne Harris-Roper, Adenike Stephenson, Anneke Rousseau, Marcus Goffe, Janielle Wallace, Fritz Sawyers and Edward Brightly. The scholarships are the office's flagship awards which seek out and mould tomorrow's leaders in various fields of endeavour. The bubbly students were given a send-off by British High Commissioner Jeremy Cresswell at his residence on Thursday.

The students will be attending some of the U.K.'s most prestigious colleges and universities for a year. The goal is for the scholars to return to their country to help develop the nation with the skills and knowledge they would have garnered by studying in a foreign land.

"This will be the first time I'll be going to study in a foreign country, so I'm looking forward to it. I'm a little worried about the cold though," joked Goffe, who will be studying intellectual property law.

For High Commissioner Cresswell, this was the third time he was sending off a batch of students. He remarked that the competition for places gets harder every year, and so whenever a group is chosen it demonstrated their academic and personal quality. He congratulated them for working very hard and reaping the rewards of that work. He jokingly reminded them that they (the Foreign Office) would be keeping their eyes on them. The areas of study this year range from construction and engineering to law.

Usually reserved for the lawns of the high commissioner's residence, the heavenly drops earlier in the afternoon forced the reception indoors. But it mattered not, as guests all enjoyed cocktails.

Among the guests were Dr. Wesley Hughes, Klao Lewis, Ambassador Douglas Saunders and Angela Robertson, Fae Ellington, Cordel Green, Dawn Scott and Bob Bark.