The 2014 XL Scholarship has been awarded to Quaejah Cox, a senior Honour Roll student at Saltus Grammar School.

The XL Scholarship is a four-year full scholarship open to students who are Bermudian or hold Permanent Resident Certificate status and are working toward a degree in (re)insurance-related studies.

Eighteen-year-old Quaejah, the daughter of Terrilynn Cox of Devonshire, was selected from a list of 47 applicants for the scholarship.

XL’s human resources manager in Bermuda, Vanessa Robinson, who chairs the XL Scholarship Committee, said: “Every year we are impressed with the calibre of applicants and this year was no different. Quaejah’s academic achievements, leadership skills and commitment to her community and country made her stand out among the qualified candidates.

“We look forward to having Quaejah join XL as an intern during her summer breaks and to supporting her as she pursues her goal to become an underwriter. We are confident that she will achieve this goal and will make valuable contributions to the (re)insurance industry and Bermuda in the future.”

Quaejah is scheduled to begin studies this year for a bachelor’s degree in Risk Management and Insurance at Temple University in the US. She plans to pursue a career in underwriting.

Quaejah’s academic achievements include passing nine General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE/IGCSE) internationally accepted subject examinations.

She has also passed a UK AS-level examination in Accounting and an Advance Placement examination in Economics, which is equivalent to a first-year university course. Among her other school-related accomplishments, Quaejah, who was voted chair of the Prom Committee, is a recipient of the Duke of Edinburgh Silver and Bronze awards. She has participated in the Saltus Island Project, a project where students clear a nature reserve of invasive species and replace them with endemic plants.

Quaejah has also represented Saltus in netball, basketball, shot put and football, including at a Canadian independent schools football tournament in Montreal. In addition to this, she represented Bermuda at the World Championships netball tournament in Glasgow, Scotland last summer.

Her extracurricular activities include volunteering for YouthNet as a mentor for students at primary and middle schools and participating in the Salvation Army’s “Feed the Homeless” project, which entails feeding more than 60 people during the evenings. As an intern with Butterfield Bank, Quaejah also participated in painting the Bermuda Sea Cadet Building in 2013.

Since the inception of the XL Scholarship (formerly the XL Insurance Scholarship) in 1990, more than $2 million has been provided to help Bermuda students prepare for professional careers in the (re)insurance industry. A condition of the award is that the recipient must be willing to return to Bermuda on completion of his or her studies.