Belizean is 2020 Commonwealth Caribbean Rhodes Scholar

“I am honestly in shock. I wasn’t expecting my name to be called, because all of the contestants were really amazing and I felt a little intimidated coming from my University [of Belize], which is 3 000 students compared to some of the contestants who are from Harvard and the University of the West Indies (UWI),” (Abbie) Godoy told the media shortly after she was announced winner this afternoon.

“Coming here and going against these people was very hard because you do grow companionship with them. You are all going through the same process. I really can’t tell you how I did it. I just know that I persevered and I was determined to get the scholarship.”

The 20-year-old intends to pursue her Master’s in Development Studies, at the University of Oxford, England.

“I have chosen this because in my country a lot of times people talk about conflict, and they talk about all the problems that we have, but never really address how we could go about amending these problems. And I feel that developing and understanding who we are and how our identity was constructed and formed is the way to go,” she explained.

Godoy said winning the prestigious scholarship was a tremendous achievement since she came from a lower middle-income family in which her mother, Brenda Guillen, made sacrifices to raise her and her two siblings.

Read more at: Barbados Today

Source: CARICOM TODAY