Five honoured with S4 Student of the Year award

Five students were presented with St. Maarten Student Support Services S4 Student of the Year awards during S4’s final workshop in the Netherlands on Thursday, May 21, writes The Daily Herald.
Honoured were Lisa Jacquet, Diangelo Valies, Murielle Jean-Michel, Julijnes Woods and Deurys Filomena Coats.
Jacquet, North-Holland’s Student of the Year, is studying International Business and Languages HBO in Amsterdam. Jacquet was described as “the rock” and “mother,” as she is seen by fellow first-year students.
Jean-Michel, who is studying Applied Psychology HBO in Nijmegen and Valies, who is studying International Hotel Management MBO in The Hague, were Middle-Holland’s Students of the Year. Both were selected because of their “brilliant” academic performance and social involvement in the Netherlands.
Coats, who studies International Tourism Management and Consultancy HBO in Breda, won the award for South-Holland. She was selected because of her inspirational focus, drive and dedication.
Woods took the award for best Caribbean Netherlands (Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba) Student of the Year. She studies International and European Law HBO in The Hague. She went to the Netherlands with the goal of later becoming a political figure on her island of Saba. Woods is still passionate about this and inspires because of her “don’t-quit attitude and determination,” a press release stated.

The Student of the Year award is an annual prize awarded to exceptional first-year students based on a combination of their academic, professional and social achievements. In the meantime, the S4 workshop entitled “The Art of Me: presenting your best self,” was given by industrial psychologist Jerry Straub who has held a number of different functions both in the public and private sectors and has personally conducted over 300 job-interviews in the span of his career.

Straub opened the interactive session by asking the students to answer some “hard, soul-searching questions,” such as Who am I? What can I do? And what do I want? He went on to not only provide them with tools to answer these questions, but he also informed them on how to give the best impression to employers and where to find internships and jobs, the release continued. The subjects touched on included networking, pitching yourself, personal branding, non-verbal communication, taking initiative, getting good references, preparing by researching and shaping your résumé.

“The students were really enthused and participated wholeheartedly in the fun-filled informative session,” S4 said. “The reason we organised this particular workshop is because we know that students will eventually have to look for internships and jobs in the future, and we want them to be well-prepared,” said S4 Operational Manager Roos Leerdam-Bulo.

The workshop was held at the S4 office in The Hague and was attended by some 30 students. Also in attendance for the award ceremony were 12 mentors, the S4 board and Minister Plenipotentiary Josianne Fleming-Artsen. This past year S4 organised similar workshops which were also provided by experts within the field.