Catherine Lama – Posted on 01/12/2021 at 9:37 AM, Updated 01/12/2021 at 9:52 AM
Yonaël Assard and Cristofe Montabord proclaim it loud and clear: young Guyanese should not deny themselves excellence. Both are studying at Sciences Po Paris. Yonaël, currently in 2nd year is on the Reims campus and preparing for a bachelor’s degree in human and social sciences
Cristofe started his studies in September 2020 at Poitiers in order to obtain a master’s degree in territorial and urban strategies.
Back for 3 weeks in Guyana, they took advantage of this time and approached for future internships and also to meet the students of the international section of their former high school Melkior and Garré in order to motivate them.
The choice to join Sciences Po
Before being classmates, these two 19-year-old Guyanese are first and foremost long-standing friends. It all started in Cayenne, at the Eugène Nonnon college to continue at the Melkior and Garré high school where each followed the international course one year apart. Holders of an economic and social baccalaureate for one and scientific for the other with the mention very good, they chose the science path po. A path of excellence which requires work and unfailing motivation.
They enthusiastically evoke their beginnings even as the Covid crisis is raging and has somewhat complicated, especially for Cristofe, their integration into this prestigious school where no one can enter.
Cristofe Montabord and Yonaël Assard © CL
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Cristofe, who was discovering Europe, France, had to adapt very quickly:
At first it was difficult. But in a relocated campus we are closer to the administration. Everything is done to help us …
With about fifteen hours of lessons per week, you have to do intense personal work. Containment due to the covid pandemic has made distance learning compulsory. In this configuration, students can stay glued from 15 to 18 hours a day in front of their computer screen. A sustained pace that must be maintained. During this first semester, Cristofe eagerly discovered the course “humanity”, a mixture of philosophy and history applied, in his case, to the Latin American area. Bilingual, he takes classes in Spanish.
His test exams and partials went well and he got his average everywhere and even more in certain subjects.
Yonaël Assard admits that his choice was late, he did not want to specialize immediately. He was considering a preparation for Lycée Félix Eboué and finally opted for Sciences Po. The school offering a multidisciplinary choice allowed him to follow an ambitious general course in the first year:
I was in science, I did not have access to certain courses such as history, philosophy, economics and the law of subjects that interested me a lot that I discovered in the same year.
For this 2nd year, I chose politics and humanity and I gradually specialized in being aware of the chance I had to try certain courses …
For his third year, which must be done abroad, Yonaël wants to join the University of Montreal in Canada or that of San-Francisco in California in the perspective of validating his major which is political and humanity.
The student recognizes having always had good academic results pushed by his parents. Today, he is open to anything: a master’s degree in communication, journalism or even in communication and the creative industry, for example, could suit him. But anthropology and post-colonial studies are also of great interest to him. A course he would consider at a North American university.
Three Guyanese in first year at Sciences-Po Poitiers
The promotion of Cristofe Montabord of 1st year of the Bachelor on the Euro Latin American campus of Sciences po Poitiers © CM
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Work within associations
On the Poitiers campus, Cristofe Montabord found Rose Emmanuella Hector and Florence Kibido who are both from Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni. Solidarity is playing out through a whatsapp group. They, too, do better than hang on and are on a roll.
The typical Sciences-Po student is a concerned citizen open to all. It is strongly recommended to get involved in associations. Yonaël Assard has assigned a one-month civic course in 2020 with the association of the Brothers of the Krik. A formative experience that he lived in the month of July in the midst of a pandemic to do prevention and distribute food to the most deprived. In Reims, it is found in 6 associations including that of ultra-marine students “Sciences O”. He “has fun” there and takes the opportunity to promote, as soon as he can, Guyana.
Cristofe Montabord is the delegate of his class. An essential position where he shines and which leads him to frequent the 150 or so students who compose it. He is also in the communication department of the student office. He deploys and completes his knowledge in digital communication.
Cristofe is very interested in territorial societal issues, he wishes to complete his civic journey in a collective structure in Guyana in May and steps in this direction.
Create emulation with Guyanese high school students
Cristofe Montabord and Yonaël Assard meet the students of the American international section at Melkior and Garré high school © CM
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No student in Guyana should refrain from excellence
Last Friday, Yoanël and Cristofe went to their former high school Melkior and Garré to meet the students of the American international section. Their goal: to talk about their course, explain the steps to take, the pitfalls to avoid and above all create emulation with these young people, often lacking in confidence. During this exchange, questions were raised. For both students, this exercise met their expectations of mutual enrichment.
Cultivate self-control and find solutions to move forward. Cristofe during this Covid confinement engaged in introspection:
Self-control is really something that I discovered at home, linking work and health context is something that I did not think I could achieve. In the end, I held on! You had to have confidence in yourself …
Away from home, the two students discovered their deep Guyanese, their belonging to an Amazonian society. On their campus, they rub shoulders with students from all over the world. This very elitist environment, formerly reserved only for a caste, frightens some. Yet over the past 20 years, access conditions have changed. In 2005, 12% of students benefited from a grant, currently 25% of students are grant holders. From their multiculturality, the Guyanese make an asset. They don’t want to forbid themselves anything. Above all, they say to other young people: being Guyanese is not a handicap whatever the environment from which one comes. So do not forbid yourself anything, you will get there!
Listen to them:
Testimony of two Guyanese students at Sciences Po
Yonaël Assard and Cristofe Montabord tell about their career at Sciences Po. –
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