President's Medal winner Soleil Baldeosingh says she is more than ready to give back to her country and the world once she completes her studies. The 18-year-old, who graduated from the St Augustine Girls’ High School (SAGHS) last week was humble as she spoke to the Guardian last week.
“Initially I wasn't sure how I felt about this award because it was completely unexpected. But now, I understand that this is something incredibly outstanding that I should feel proud of not because it recognises my hard work but because it puts me in a position to inspire people.” Baldeosingh said she thought about medal winners of previous years, especially Nadimah Mohammed who also attended SAGHS. She said she felt admiration and said their success influenced her.
“I hope that I can have a similar impact on people in my school and other schools as well.” A Chaguanas resident, who spends a lot of time at the beach in Toco, Baldeosingh felt it was important for her to find a career helping people. She said she wanted to study either law in England or international studies in Canada. “I am very much interested, obsessed even, with global affairs and everything that is happening in our world today from Isis to Ebola.”
“I hope to get a job with the UN and I hope that I can meet people from everywhere in the world to broaden my perspective of the world as I know it. As cliché and trite as it sounds, I genuinely want to help make a difference. “I particularly want to go to countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, regardless of Ebola and help stem the tide of insidious crimes that propagate freely.” She said her parents had a hard time believing that she had won but were still very proud.
“They have expressed that this is just the beginning and that I have to continue working hard. They are keeping me humble and grounded through everything.” As for her initial reaction, Baldeosingh said she was shocked. “This is not something that happens to me. Really and truly I don't think anyone thinks that they are going to win the president's medal. I am beyond grateful because I know that there are people who worked incredibly hard and are incredibly brilliant and did not end up in this position.
“It has given me a superfluity of motivation going forward. I hope that it propels me to work even harder and accomplish even more.” Though Baldeosingh says she now feels a greater pressure to accomplish more, she said, this pressure was self-imposed.
“I never really felt such pressure before because during my high school career, no one, not even myself ever placed pressure on me to achieve anything. Now I feel as though people are expecting things from me which is not necessarily bad because it motivates me to work even harder.”