Isabella Powery, 14 – West Bay – Sports

Isabella Powery has produced an impressive collection of sporting accomplishments in martial arts, track and rugby over the last several years.

In 2014 she was awarded the Junior Victrix Ludorum Athletics award at St. Ignatius Catholic School. At that particular event, Isabella broke the school record for the 600 metres with a time of 2:10:07.

In 2015, she represented Cayman at the Purple Dragon World Championship in Trinidad. She achieved two gold medals and was also inducted into the 3rd Caribbean Martial Arts Hall of Fame.

In 2016, Isabella achieved the rank of black belt in the Purple Dragon karate system. She also assists in teaching at the dojo. She also received the following awards from St. Ignatius: highest attainment in physical education, inter schools tag rugby champions and PSA Athletics Year 8 girls’ champion. In the same year, in a private schools meet, Isabella won silver medals in the 100 metres, 200 metres, long jump, 4 x 100 metres, 4 x 400 metres (Year 11 while she was a Year 9 student).

At the St. Ignatius track meet, also in 2016, Isabella won gold in the 100 metres, 200 metres and the 300 metres – achieving a new school record of 47.03. The latter being her second track record. Isabella was also awarded her school’s Victrix Lodorium jointly, her second such award.

In August 2017 the West Bay resident represented the Cayman Islands in the U.S. Capitol Classics in Washington D.C., which is a major international karate tournament. Isabella won first place in the following categories: self-defence, creative weapons, creative katas and point sparring. She also placed third in synchronised weapons.

In spite of her commitment to sports, Isabella was able to maintain a 4.0 GPA, and is also an active member of her school’s Kiwanis Key Club.

With her drive and ability, Isabella has proved that that it is possible to succeed in both academics and athletics.

Jennelle McLaughlin, 25 – George Town – Community Service

At Elmslie Memorial United Church, Jennelle is known for her humility, conscientiousness, calm demeanour and willingness to assist others. Her life is replete with examples of service to the Cayman Islands through her involvement in various Christian ministries at her church including those of youth, music, Sunday school, dance and mentoring. Her participation in these ministries has been especially significant as a teacher in the church’s Friday night and Sunday school programmes. Jennelle plays a key role in planning and staging the Sunday school’s annual Christmas productions and quarterly Youth Sundays and is a role model to teenagers and pre-teens at Elmslie.

Jennelle became a member of the Cayman Islands Girls’ Brigade, an organisation known for its Christian outreach locally and internationally, when she was only four-years-old. A member of the George Town company for the past 20 years, she has travelled as far as Australia and Africa as part of a team representing the Cayman Islands Girls’ Brigade.

The George Town resident’s life of service has always been multi-faceted and another example of this is her membership of Key Club during high school. As a member, she took full advantage of the opportunities the organisation gave her to learn and exercise leadership. Key Club also prepared Jennelle for role as a peer mentor while at school.

A further outlet for her devotion to community service is Jennelle’s active involvement with Special Olympics in the Cayman Islands. Starting during her high school Key Club years, it is a cause she has rededicated her commitment to since returning from university in the United Kingdom.

While community service is central to Jennelle’s life, she has always balanced it with a strong need to advance academically. Before starting tertiary education at Bedford University in England, Jennelle graduated from Cayman Prep and High School with passes in nine subjects. She went on to consistently make her university’s honour roll and graduated with a second class upper division bachelor of sciences degree in accounting and finance with honours in 2015.

Jennelle is currently looking to pursue the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) qualification to become a certified accountant while working full-time at Scotia Bank.

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