"I'd prefer to hold 10 subjects in my hand rather than a gun." Powerful words from young Oshane Hamilton, lower sixth-form student at Kingston College and one of the nominees in the Flow/Rotary Youth Leadership and Awards (Flow/RYLA) scheduled for Courtleigh Auditorium, May 16.

Oshane and three other nominees introduced themselves at a press conference last week Monday, at the Spanish Court Hotel, to launch the Flow/RYLA component of the Flow/Rotary Leadership Initiative, a training and education programme. It is a programme for youths, which recognises young people who have demonstrated positive leadership qualities.

A resident of an inner-city community, Oshane said, "It was painful to see the lives of so many my age go to nought," and praised his mother for showing him the "path to success".

He has been a leader in his community and at school and now has 10 Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) subjects with six distinctions and studying four Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE) subjects. He is often called 'Bossy', 'General' and 'Big Man', terms of respect.

Oshane likes being viewed as a leader, but made the point, "It's because of my academic achievements, not donmanship."

Motivating force

Cindy Haynes, a 20-year-old teaching assistant for RISE Life Management Services, also sees living in the inner city as a "motivating force" pushing her to achieve.

She said, "Due to the lack of finances in my family, the threat of going out of my way for money was always a factor. But I was determined not to be that type of person."

With many awards of achievement, eight CSEC and eight CAPE subjects, Cindy has also presided over several youth clubs.

Nineteen-year-old Jerome Cowan, merit student and prefect at Jamaica College, said life in his "garrison community is nothing near safe and there is no appropriate time for studying".

He said that there was "a great deal of peer pressure to smoke marijuana, pick up guns and do precisely every wrong deed and being in a poor family made it more enticing".

"The grace of God, and his determina-tion," he said, has prevented him from straying.

A member of several community-based organisations, Jerome has eight CSEC subjects and is currently studying four CAPE subjects.

Another nominee, 25-year-old University of the West Indies medical student, Tamara Foster, said she achieved in spite of being born in an inner-city community and having, "to battle with the strongest financial demons".

Rather than bemoaning her fate, she said that growing up in the 'garrison' made her realise her innermost potential, making her work harder at every project.

Tamara, who already holds a Bachelor of Science degree (UWI) in food chemistry credits her mother who, "has done so much" and family and friends who love and encourage her with helping her "to bloom where I am planted".

These four young people are only a small sample of the hundreds of talented young leaders who will be participating in the Flow/Rotary Youth Leadership Conference and Awards on Saturday, May 16.

A special 50th anniversary project of the Rotary Clubs of Jamaica sponsored by telecommunications firm Flow, the Flow/RYLA, will see youth award nominees aged between 17 and 30 receiving training from successful professionals with special emphasis on the importance of ethics, communication skills, problem-solving, conflict management and resolution, and community service. The conference aims to help hone leadership skills, increase self-confidence and expose participants to a variety of issues and people.

Flow/RYLA application forms are available from Rotary Clubs across the island, Rotary Club headquarters at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel and can be requested via email at: rlijamaica@gmail.com.

In addition to the Flow/Rotary Youth Leadership Conference and Awards Programme, the Flow/Rotary Leadership Initiative has three other components:

Lunch with a Leader which gives young Jamaicans an opportunity to attend weekly Rotary lunches and to network with Rotarians and guests.

Early Act, a service club for primary and preparatory school children five-13 years old, and Leader Act/Rotary Community Corps, through which stakeholders including residents, church and community organisations work together to improve life in their community.

About Flow

With just three years since its entry into Jamaica, Flow has already made an indelible impact on the local telecommunications industry placing Jamaica as a regional industry leader for data connectivity and innovative digital products. With its dynamic triple play of services - digital cable TV, digital landline and blazing speed Internet, Flow is helping to build a tech savvy, digital, knowledge-based society as Jamaicans forge ahead in keeping apace with the latest global technological trends.

Flow has made a significant commitment to Jamaica investing over US$180 million ($13 billion) to develop human resources, build an islandwide all-digital infrastructure and enhance digital education in all public schools as part of the company's social development programme.

Jamaica is now the only country in the region with a direct undersea fibre-optic connection to the United States and South America as Flow via its express, direct, network system to Boca in Florida and Cartaghena in Colombia. The record investment in the undersea system also provides Jamaica with unprecedented capacity, resiliency, redundancy and reliability for data communication.