The founders of a career and technical education scholarship fund held a brief ceremony Monday to remember a St. John educator who championed opportunities for vocational students. About a dozen friends and colleagues of the late Nancy Callwood joined the event marking the third anniversary of her death.
Since then, eight students have won awards from the Nancy Powell-Callwood Memorial Scholarship Fund. Sekai Pinney, the 2026 winner, was on hand at Monday’s event held at Shani’s Beauty Salon in Estate Contant-Enighed. Deputy Education Commissioner Renee Charleswell was among those praising the recent Charlotte Amalie High School graduate for becoming the first male student to join the list of recipients.
Callwood’s mother, Mary Powell, said that Pinney and other recipients were guests of honor at the gathering. “We are thankful that they’re here, and after the celebration we will take flowers and put them on her tomb,” Powell said.
Charleswell told a story of how she and Callwood worked together in the Education Department’s State Office of Special Education on St. Thomas, and how her colleague made frequent trips to the agency headquarters to advocate for Career and Technical Education programs.
“One of the things I liked about Nancy was her tenacity; she would walk from Garden Street — that’s where her office was located — to Education Street whether it was sunshine, raining, hot, just to make sure she got (sic) what she needed to get done for her students,” Charleswell said. “I remember seeing Nancy sit in the federal grants office for hours just to make sure the grants and the monies needed to support her programs were there.”
Pinney said he would use his scholarship to pursue a career in electrical engineering at Florida A&M University. “Our principal, during the school year would send us all the scholarships and I would apply as much as possible,” he said.
With help from the Callwood Fund and other successful applications, he said there was enough funding to pay for his freshman year; then it would be time to pursue another round of funding.
Another winner on hand Monday said they used their award to study Animal Science with hopes of becoming a veterinary technician. Organizers provided a list of winners since 2023 including: Wennycia Issac, Tamyra Bartlette, Jennifer Jules, Se’Niya-Monae Hodge, Shari Raphael and Nadjah Jn Phillip.
At the ceremony, Charleswell said one of Callwood’s hopes was to organize a tour of trade schools for vocational education students, similar to the college tours arranged for those pursuing academic studies after high school.
Former Adult Education instructor Alecia Wells and former Julius Sprauve School administrator Lisa Penn said they would also like to see St. John revitalize the high school equivalency courses that were once part of the island’s public education system.
