Nordisia Lake is the recipient of the Dame Bernice V Lake QC Memorial Award to the Top CAPE Law Student in Anguilla for 2013. The presentation was held at the Edison L Hughes Library & Education Complex on Tuesday, February 18, by the Anguilla Bar Association as a tribute to the life and service of the late Anguillian legal luminary.

Ms Jean Dyer, Secretary of the Bar, told the gathering: “Your presence is a testimony to the importance you attached to recognising academic excellence and your support to the Anguilla Bar Association’s efforts.” She congratulated Miss Nordisia Lake for being the most outstanding student in Anguilla in CAPE A-level Law for 2013, and the Bar Association for shaping the award over the past two years.

Ms Yvette Wallace, President of the Bar, gave a brief background of the award. She said in part: “Undoubtedly, Dr Bernice V Lake QC was a distinguished lady who served Anguilla as well as the wider Caribbean throughout her lifetime. She displayed an unyielding commitment to securing a climate of constitutionalism in her region. Her campaign on social justice and to protect the human rights of all has been relentless. She has made a profound contribution to the Caribbean jurisprudence in these areas. She was very much a grassroots person in her community which actually extended not just to Anguilla but Antigua, St Kitts and Nevis.”

Ms Wallace said that in 2011 the Anguilla Bar Association sought to honour the late lawyer by launching the Dame Bernice Lake QC Memorial Scholarship and Award. The scholarship is available to nationals of the Commonwealth Caribbean who have gained admission to the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, to read for a degree in law and who have completed the first year of the programme, including the course in constitutional law. The scholarship is based on academic merit and is awarded to the student who attains the best mark in constitutional law and who obtains and maintains a minimum GPA of 3.0. The scholarship, which is for a period of two years, is valued at US$5,000 accumulatively. The second recipient of the scholarship for the academic year 2012-2013 is Ms Taylor Loraine of Barbados.

Mrs Josephine Gumbs Connor, Vice President of the Bar, was pleased that Ms Nordisia Lake of Anguilla was the recipient of the Dame Bernice Award which she presented to her with high compliments. The 20-year-old student did ten CXC subjects and received distinctions in eight. She sat eight CAPE subjects and achieved six distinctions, one being law for which she has now received the Dame Bernice Award – a glass plaque and a laptop computer.

Replying, Nordisia said it was an honour for her to be recognised as the Anguillian student with the most outstanding CAPE Law results. “I would have never imagined receiving this award when I started law,” she said. “I am delighted as it not only highlights my dedication and determination, but it gives individuals like myself motivation to aspire to be like Bernice Lake.”

The Anguillian student intends to commence her university studies in England in September this year. She will be studying International Business Management at Aston University.