St. Lucia’s Shining Star
By Eric Addison
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Kester Charlemagne (front and center), 2008–10 Team Leader of Millet Primary School’s Science Innovators, with (left to right) Millet Primary School Principal Flavian Isembert, NSBE Executive Director Carl B. Mack (“Brother E.D.”) and Jacqueline Bird of RISE Inc., July 2010
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Can big things come in small packages?
Millet Primary is a small school in a small farming village in the tiny island nation of St. Lucia, in the Caribbean Sea. Two years ago, a small boy named Kester Charlemagne led a group of students from Millet Primary to a very big achievement.
Guided by their science teacher, Mary George, Kester and his team made a cooler out of waste products they found around their homes: a five-gallon plastic water bottle, Styrofoam and aluminum foil. When the “Millet Primary School Home-Made Cooler” was tested against commercially made coolers, it was found to work just as well. It kept items cool for up to eight hours. It was also cheaper to make and more environmentally friendly than the store-bought varieties.
In 2008, the Home-Made Cooler was Millet Primary’s entry in the annual St. Lucia National Schools’ Science and Technology Fair. It won first prize in the primary schools category at the competition — a first time achievement for Millet Primary. Today, the device and its inventors are famous throughout the region. Kester was nominated to represent his school and country at the 2009 National Institute of Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology (NIHERST) “Go Creative” Regional Young Inventors and Innovators Competition, which was held during the Youth Forum of the Americas, in the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. At “Go Creative,” Kester won again. He received the Caribbean Young Inventors and Innovators Award at the event.
Since its first big breakthrough in 2008, Millet Primary has had a string of successes in science. The school won national awards for its Lie Detector/Polygraph test in 2009 and for its bicycle-powered washing machine this year. In July, a community organization named RISE, in St. Lucia, gave its Shining Stars’ Exemplary Youth award to Kester and the other Millet Primary School students who invented the Home-Made Cooler: Francia Augustin, Saachi Justin, Craig Regis, Davy Regis, Cassie Stanislaus and Sherry Wilson.
“There are quite a few students at Millet Primary School who are talented,” says Flavian Isembert, the school’s principal. “The teachers and I have to do a lot of motivational talks to ensure that the students believe in themselves. Once we instill in them that they have the ability to achieve, then half of our work is done.”
Principal Isembert sees a number of ways that NSBE can help students in St. Lucia.
“It’s always challenging to teach our students because of the lack of materials and supplies,” he says. “We don’t have a science lab at Millet Primary. If we had a science lab, maybe our students would perform even better. Also, students in St. Lucia in general need exposure. If there is a project that will take them beyond St. Lucia, I think that will motivate the students here.”
Kester says he felt “overwhelmed with enthusiasm” after winning his awards. He is now attending St. Mary’s College, a high school in St. Lucia, after graduating from Millet Primary this year. He has set his sights on becoming a doctor. An excellent athlete, as well, according to Principal Isembert, he plans to continue playing cricket and football (American soccer) at St. Mary’s.
“It felt good to see a small boy like me could accomplish so much,” Kester says.
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