Eight Jamaican high-school student-athletes had more than 400,000 reasons to smile on Wednesday when they were named recipients of scholarships for the remainder of their high school years by the Pocket Rocket Foundation run by four-time 100m world champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce.

The 2020 scholarship awardees were sixth-form students York Shane (St. Jago), track and field and volleyball; Jahiem Wedderburn (Kingston College), lacrosse and football; Samantha Morrison (St. Andrew High School), track and field, swimming; fifth-form student Adrian Nethersole (St. Elizabeth Technical), track and field; as well as fourth-form students Jasauna Dennis (St. Elizabeth Technical), track and field; Habiba Harris (St. Elizabeth Technical), track and field; Oshane Blackwood (St. Elizabeth Technical), track and field; and Solesha Young (Convent of Mercy), track and field, table tennis, badminton, hockey, netball.

According to the foundation, second to fifth-form recipients, received J$50,000 each while the sixth-formers each got J$60,000.00. The total value of the scholarships this year amounts to J$430,000.

These eight will join the 12 current student-athletes on scholarship, which means that the foundation is supporting 20 scholarship recipients for the duration of their high school education. To date, a total of 50 scholarships have been awarded through the foundation.

This year’s recipients were selected from 58 applications that included applicants from territories outside Jamaica including Turks & Caicos, Cuba, USA, Canada & South Africa). However, the scholarships are only available to Jamaican high school student athletes.