QC student excels at CXC with 11 grade ones
…Daniel Ram plays football, cricket and is also a talented musician
By Ruel Johnson
Guyana Chronicle
August 24, 2003
A QUEEN’S College student is possibly the country’s top performer at this year’s CXC tests.
Efforts by the Sunday Chronicle to obtain official confirmation yesterday proved futile.
Daniel Ram of Lusignan, East Coast Demerara, yesterday told this newspaper that he had received word that he gained 11 grade ones and three grade twos - a total of 14 passes. He sat 13 subjects - English A, Mathematics, Physics, Biology, Chemistry, History, Social Studies, Music, Spanish, French, Information Technology, and Agricultural Science, earning a double-award in the last.
Sunday Chronicle stopped in for a brief chat with the reserved 17 year old at his parents’ elegant Lusignan home yesterday.
Daniel was still a little shell-shocked from hearing the news broadcast to him from a loudspeaker at his church yesterday morning, while he was in the middle of his church youth group activities.
Daniel attributes his success to support from his friends, family, church and God.
He is an active member of his church youth group, but this doesn’t mean that he hasn’t made time for anything else.
He was the head of H house at Queen’s College; he is involved in the church group there; he used to play football and he is a member of the cricket team, although he admits with a smile, “They don’t let me play much.”
Yet, with all this on his plate, he still managed to get through a six-day school week, with no free periods on weekdays. And in addition to that, he still put in time to study.
“Studying is not a favourite thing of mine,” says Daniel, “but you have to do it.”
Daniel is also an avid musician. He plays the piano, drums and the recorder. He confesses to playing his piano until midnight at times and says that he imagines the neighbours sometimes get annoyed.
Two people who definitely aren’t annoyed by Daniel are his parents, Chatterpaul and Ruth Ram, both doctors. Mr. Ram is a dentist, while Mrs. Ram is a physician attached to the GUM clinic.
They say that while they are proud of Daniel’s achievement, they did not need to see his recent feat for them to know that he is a special person. They have always been supportive of Daniel and his younger sister, Rebecca.
Both are bilingual, due both to the fact that their mother is Cuban-born, and spending their early years in Colombia while their parents were studying.
On his future plans, Daniel plans to go back to Queen’s College to take on the sixth form programme although he isn’t quite settled on what subjects he plans to do. And after that, he wants to pursue a career in microbiology, and to also, when he gets the chance, to play a bit of music.