'Beach Boy' Kenneth is schol winner

KENNETH VECK is the lone Open Scholarship winner from Queen’s Royal College. Winning one of the three Modern Studies scholarships and going off to the University of Kent in England this afternoon, to pursue a four year Bachelor of Science degree in Law and Psychology, is like a dream to the 19-year-old who admits to having always been an under-achiever in academics. “This has been like waking up one morning and winning the lottery. My reports have always read: Kenneth is not applying himself, Kenneth can do a lot better. I considered my CXC a failure with just three ones, two twos, one three, I failed chemistry and got an A in add math the only subject I studied for. All my friends did so much better.” But these results were good enough to get him into A levels. The next year he was appointed Head Prefect.

Kenneth never guessed that he would win an island scholarship: “I didn’t expect to get three A’s in mathematics, economics and literature and a B in General Paper. Then I thought that there was hope enough for me to ask Kent to extend my acceptance time and I would reply after the scholarships came out because with an Additional Schol I would not have made it to Kent.” Actually Veck had already entered the St Augustine Campus as a first year law student:  “I had my ID Card, and everything including homework for Tuesday, the day I officially withdrew.” He is proud to be one of six former Bishop Anstey Junior School students who have won National Scholarships this year.  The others are Summer Alston-Smith, who also won the President’s Medal, Alexander Paddington, Crystal Lee Lum, Melanie Tom and Tracey Lucas. At age four, Kenneth’s father, Peter, an Englishman, died just as he was about to enter BAJS, where his mother, Lorraine, has taught for the past 23 years. “After my father died, I got mysteriously sick and had to take a year off school. Actually my father came from Kent and my mother compromised with his mother and called me Kenneth, rather than Kent.” At age eight his mother remarried Dutchman, Johan Van Druten.  “He became my Dad, my father was Daddy. And I got a brother, Arie, who is 12 years younger than I am.”

Six years ago, at an age when most teens live for the next ‘lime,’ Kenneth’s parents moved to the Maracas Hills, on the other side of the Northern Range: “It took a lot of guts for them to move up there. We live there, and are building it around us, as it is still being built.  I was always a limer and to move from the heart of town to Maracas Hills with no proper phone so that friends could give me a call, no driver’s licence, I missed being in the middle of everything. But then it all came together with the cell phone, and even that is an experimental unit by TSTT.  The whole house is on solar as there are no electricity lines.  I do have a computer and a television. In the beginning you had to use a four wheel drive, but now a road has been fixed and my friends come, especially now they are older and everybody has a licence and a car. “At age 14, it was impossible for them to come and there was no going by the neighbour because it is on the way to nowhere.  I am now a ‘beach boy’ as we have our own beach.”

When Kenneth entered QRC, the late Laurence Mc Dowall, who was like a father to him, steered him into athletics. “I wasn’t very good, I was skinny and really didn’t fit in, but stayed to prove everybody wrong, especially my Mom who wanted me to be a swimmer. It was her sport.  She had been a National swimmer.” Kenneth’s first National selection was as a high jumper to a Junior Caribbean Meeting.  “But I didn’t get to go, the excuse was that because of an injury a year before, they preferred to take a healthy athlete.  The next year I chose not to accept the selection, in hindsight that was stupid of me as it was just to show them.  And the year after I was a reserve hurdler for Carifta here in Trinidad, I remember making the back page of the Newsday. The next year I finally went with the team to Grenada as a 100 and 400 metre hurdler.  Technically I can only say I participated that one time.”

“But what I will remember when I am boasting to my grandchildren, is the one major award when I was in Form Four.” At the 1998 National Amateur Athletics Association’s annual awards. Veck was nominated Outstanding Juvenile Field Athlete of the Year. Darrell Brown, silver medallist in the recent World Athletic Championships, was Outstanding Junior Track Athlete of the Year and Ato Boldon was the Outstanding Senior Track Athlete of the Year.  After the death of Mc Dowall, Veck called it a day because, although he was good at hurdles, he never really liked it.   “At times I do feel guilty because of Laurence, who was really the only reason I would have continued with athletics.”   Veck ran for QRC as both club and school in the Hampton Games between Forms One to Four, and has won several super athletic competitions. Veck then picked up water polo properly, and made the national team which won a silver medal at the 2002 Caribbean Island Swimming Championships in Curacao. “We were the first team to ever beat Puerto Rico in the competition.”  He always swam at QRC and still holds several under 12 non-competitive college records. For years he assisted his mother as a swim coach at BAJS,  and was last year hired by Bishop Anstey High School as coach. “For the first time, the school won the Secondary Schools swim meet in February 2003”  says the excited Coach who is in the same age group as many of his students.

Around Form Three, another of this young man’s talents surfaced. Unknown to him, his Literature teacher, Rhona Bisram, entered one of his poems in the 1996 Colonial Life International Poetry Day Competition. He was judged the Best Junior Poet in the Caribbean and came third overall in the entire contest. “I love literature and have to thank my teachers Mrs Bisram and Francis Warner. They are the reasons why I have done so well.  I can’t thank them enough as they are more than teachers to me.” What sport does Kenneth plan to play at University?  “I have always played football every lunch time up to Form Four. That’s why I went to QRC and will never trade it for any other school. Education there is all-rounded, it feels like a family, you are not pushed with academics and you can’t put a price on it.  I might go into football as it is a lot easier and you can play on Sundays. But I have kept water polo going and will try to continue.” His studies, needless to say, are important, as it has been nice to finally sit back after applying himself and having achieved, and have everybody congratulate him.  As to girlfriends, there has been someone special for the past few months who helped and encouraged him. Before that, says the very handsome young man: “Because of where I  live, girls always dumped me very quickly.” Kenneth Veck’s dream: “I want to do my Masters definitely.  I have no idea what I want to be but I always fitted in as I love reading and can talk in public.  I have debated a few times in school.”