T A Marryshow Memorial Award winner Cydney Steele and A A La Grenade Shield Award winner Myah Joseph. Photo: Reynaldo Bernard of Unique Photography
by Roxanne Thompson
- Cydney Steele wins the T A Marryshow Memorial Award
- Myah Joseph brings SAASS its first A A La Grenade Shield
- Jahzara Johnson earns nominations for both awards
Cydney Steele and Myah Joseph have marked 2 milestones in Grenada’s secondary school academic record, winning the 2025 T A Marryshow Memorial Award and A A La Grenade Shield, respectively.
Steele, a former student of St Joseph’s Convent, St George’s (SJC), and Joseph, who sat her Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examinations at St Andrew’s Anglican Secondary School (SAASS), received the honours at a ceremony hosted by the UWI Global Campus Grenada on Friday, 9 October.
The awards recognise different areas of achievement and honour prominent Grenadians. Head of Site Keisha Commissiong-Branch said T A Marryshow was a journalist, political activist and West Indian federalist His award recognises performance in English A, Mathematics, Information Technology and Caribbean History, alongside the best four additional subjects, which must include a foreign language or a science subject. A A La Grenade was an educator, former Chief Education Officer and father to Dame Cecile La Grenade. His shield recognises technical and vocational subjects, together with strong results in English, Mathematics and a science subject. Across the two awards, 22 students from 8 schools were nominated, which included 18 females. Commissiong-Branch described the selection process as “highly competitive” with the university’s Territorial Advisory Committee assessing results from the May/June 2025 CSEC examinations.
Steele’s win extends SJC’s longstanding record in the Marryshow Award. She earned 11 Grade Ones and 2 Grade Twos across 13 CSEC subjects. According to the award’s winners list, SJC has won the award 26 times since its introduction in 1977, including 6 consecutive wins from 1996 to 2001. SJC shared the prize with Westmoreland Secondary in 2012 and Grenada Boys’ Secondary School in 2013. Principal Jill Viechweg-Philbert, who marked her 10th year as principal of SJC on the day of the ceremony, attributed the school’s record to the values established by its founders — the Sisters of St Joseph of Cluny. “To work is to pray, so we work hard, and so do we honour God,” she said. Steele affirmed that prayer helped her manage the pressure of examinations, describing the period as a rough time. She encouraged future CSEC candidates to practise past papers and trust what they had learnt throughout their school years. She is considering further studies in biophysics or biomedical engineering, with The University of the West Indies in Trinidad among her possible options.
Joseph’s win marks a first for SAASS, which had not previously received the La Grenade Shield since the award was introduced in 1995. She earned 8 Grade Ones and 5 Grade Twos across 13 CSEC subjects. The school’s only earlier win across the two awards was the Marryshow Award in 1984, won by Janice Malcolm. Joseph, who has since moved on to the next stage of her education, credited God, her family and her former teachers with helping to shape her development as both a student and a person. She said she was surprised by her nomination and hopes her results show that students “don’t have to be perfect to succeed.”
The students’ achievements were recognised with individual prizes and awards for their schools. Grenada Co-operative Bank sponsored EC$1,000 to both winners, while Steele received a laptop sponsored by Ariza Credit Union and Joseph received one sponsored by Nexa Credit Union. Both students also received personal trophies and certificates from the UWI Global Campus Grenada. SJC took home the Marryshow winning cup, while SAASS received the La Grenade winning shield.
Among the nominees, Jahzara Johnson of J W Fletcher Catholic Secondary School stood out as the only student nominated for both the Marryshow Award and the La Grenade Shield, and her school’s sole nominee across the two categories. The winners’ lists show that only 2 students have won both awards in the same year: Cerisse Nedd of Anglican High School in 2008 and Canaa Gittens of SJC in 2021. Their achievements reflect the awards’ recognition of excellence across academic, technical and vocational subjects, while preserving the legacies of two Grenadians who contributed to the country’s development through journalism, education and public life.
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