Governor General's Youth Award
During Year 10 to IB2 our students have the opportunity to become involved in The Governor’s General Youth Award (GGYA).
Through their GGYA experience, students make friends and memories and build traits like confidence, resilience and self-esteem, which can benefit mental health. They gain skills and attributes for work and life, like problem-solving, team-working and self-motivation – and they also achieve an Award that’s recognized internationally and can help them stand out when applying for university and later employment.
The GGYA was re-established in the Bahamas in 1987, initially known as the “Bahamas Duke Of Edinburgh’s Award Scheme” and was re-named the “Governor General’s Youth Award” in 1996. Our current Patron is Her Excellency The Hon. Cynthia A. Pratt.
Voluntary Service - Our students fulfill this element through volunteering at local charities and organizations to not only improve their own skills but to help out community. Examples include fostering animals from the GB Humane Society, painting the new educational facility in the GB Children's Home and monthly beach clean ups.
Physical Recreation - The Conchman Triathlon is an annual exciting event that allows our students to train throughout the school year to help complete this element. Other physical activities include horseback riding, sailing, dance, yoga and gardening. Our students are also actively involved in local sport clubs and participate in the inter-island sports competitions.
Skills – Some of the many skills our students engage in are; painting, cooking, photography, creating fly-fishing lures, learning to play new musical instruments and line dancing.
Journey -
BRONZE: - The Bronze expedition is a two day hike which is all about getting out there and going on an exploration in a challenging environment with a clear purpose. The hike covers approximately 15 miles with a night camping.
SILVER: - Throughout the three day cycling expedition our students learn essential expedition skills along with bike handling techniques, maintenance, road safety, and navigation, route planning and emergency procedures. The cycle covers approximately 60 miles with two nights camping.
GOLD: - The most recent gold journey consisted of 5 students co-leading a 5 day kayaking expedition in East Grand Bahama, exploring the eastern cays and camping at Sweetings Cay. During their Journey the students documented changes in the environment after Hurricane Dorian, including mapping out the different types of ocean bottoms (seagrass, sand banks, coral) and observing the amount and type of human trash on the Cays. They also volunteered their time at Sweetings Cay with Rotary to help paint new homes across the island.
