Justice Lucky to top SEA students: Don’t ever abandon T&T

KEVON FELMINE

Se­nior Re­porter

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As hun­dreds of high-achiev­ing Sec­ondary Ed­u­ca­tion As­sess­ment (SEA) stu­dents looked to­ward fu­tures that may one day take them over­seas, High Court Judge Gillian Lucky de­liv­ered a blunt ap­peal on Sat­ur­day: come back home.

Speak­ing at the Pres­by­ter­ian Pri­ma­ry Schools’ Board of Ed­u­ca­tion’s 2025 SEA Awards func­tion in San Fer­nan­do on Sat­ur­day, Lucky urged the stu­dents to use their tal­ents to help build T&T, warn­ing that bril­liance alone does not make great lead­ers.

“I don’t see you as fu­ture lead­ers of oth­er coun­tries. I want to see you as fu­ture lead­ers in our coun­try, Trinidad and To­ba­go,” Lucky said.

She said while aca­d­e­m­ic ex­cel­lence opens doors in­ter­na­tion­al­ly, young achiev­ers must not lose sight of their re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to the coun­try and com­mu­ni­ties that sup­port­ed them. She told the stu­dents that lead­er­ship re­quires hu­mil­i­ty, com­pas­sion and in­tegri­ty, not just in­tel­li­gence and achieve­ment.

“Be­ing bril­liant is not the be-all and end-all. Be­ing bril­liant will not nec­es­sar­i­ly equate to you be­com­ing an out­stand­ing or good leader,” Lucky said.

“You may be very in­tel­li­gent, you may know all the an­swers, but if you lack kind­ness, hu­mil­i­ty, in­tegri­ty and com­pas­sion, a great leader you will nev­er be.”

Lucky al­so warned of the dan­gers of ar­ro­gance among peo­ple in po­si­tions of au­thor­i­ty, say­ing suc­cess can some­times dis­tance lead­ers from or­di­nary peo­ple.

Draw­ing from her ex­pe­ri­ence in the ju­di­cia­ry, she said pub­lic crit­i­cism of judges is of­ten tied not on­ly to de­lays in the courts but to per­cep­tions of ar­ro­gance.

“The more bril­liant you are, the high­er the of­fice you hold, there is a re­al risk of be­com­ing ar­ro­gant.”

She urged the stu­dents to re­mem­ber those who may not have had the same op­por­tu­ni­ties and said true suc­cess in­cludes giv­ing back to so­ci­ety.

“It makes lit­tle sense to achieve great things if the peo­ple around you are not suc­ceed­ing be­cause they can­not get a break.”

Lucky point­ed to for­mer prime min­is­ters Dr Er­ic Williams and Bas­deo Pan­day as ex­am­ples of na­tion­als who stud­ied abroad but re­turned home to con­tribute to the coun­try’s de­vel­op­ment.

“They did not stay from afar and tell us to do this and do that. No, they came back home.”

“And that is what I am en­cour­ag­ing you all to do to­day. Please come back home.”

Re­call­ing a pre­vi­ous speech to schol­ar­ship win­ners, Lucky said one fa­ther con­front­ed her af­ter­wards for en­cour­ag­ing stu­dents to re­turn to T&T af­ter study­ing over­seas. She said the par­ent ques­tioned why stu­dents should come back when op­por­tu­ni­ties abroad may be greater.

Lucky, how­ev­er, main­tained that while stu­dents are free to pur­sue op­por­tu­ni­ties in­ter­na­tion­al­ly, they al­so have a re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to help de­vel­op the coun­try that in­vest­ed in their ed­u­ca­tion. She added that her stance has cost her friend­ships over the years, but she con­tin­ues to share the mes­sage be­cause she be­lieves the coun­try’s fu­ture de­pends on young peo­ple re­turn­ing home and con­tribut­ing to na­tion­al de­vel­op­ment.