Seventeen-Year-Old Aian Deane-Warner is the Central Bank of Barbados’ 2023 SPISE Scholar

Aian Deane-Warner, a 17-year-old Queen’s College student, is the Central Bank of Barbados’ 2023 SPISE (Students Programme for Innovation in Science and Engineering) scholar. This means that this summer, he will take part in an intense five-week residential programme at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill, that will give him, and other students from across the Caribbean, university- level training in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). 

Aian is passionate about Mathematics and Physics and aspires to a career in either Astrophysics or Mathematical modelling. He says, however, that his interests extend beyond STEM and that he enjoys many other subjects. He is also an athlete, and represents Barbados as a member of the national water polo team. In fact, it was through that activity that he heard about the SPISE experience from one of his teammates who was a past student of the programme. His teammate encouraged him to apply, which he eagerly did. 

“When I heard how he enjoyed it and how it really helped him, I wanted to try it as well. I also want to be a part of SPISE because it gives you a college experience before college, and I think that is really valuable.”

SPISE attracts a strong pool of applicants annually, and this year, Aian will be one of two students chosen from Barbados. He admits that he feels “a bit nervous” but excited and optimistic. He is very much looking forward to carrying out the diverse and creative experiments and college-level coding that will be offered. Even with his previous experience in this area, he acknowledges that tackling it at an advanced level might be challenging. But, he says, he has a system and coping mechanism for the challenges that will be presented during the programme:

“I think I’m going to take the same approach I took while doing CAPE. While this is more intense than CAPE, what I found was, if you’re hitting a wall, just take 10 minutes, step away, and come back. It doesn’t make sense to stay there and do the same thing again and again and again. You have to persevere, you can’t stop, but you are allowed to take 10 minutes and then go back to it. The point is knowing when to stop.

“During this programme, we will be doing multiple things at once, and I know this will be really useful. If you hit a wall in one thing, you stop with that and go onto something else and still be productive with your time. I think managing my time well will be a huge part of getting through this programme and making the most of it. I think with proper time management and knowing when to stop and when to go on to something else, that will help me get through.”

Aian praised the Central Bank for sponsoring him and expressed his appreciation to the organisation. He is grateful for this opportunity to experience SPISE and to meet other students with similar interests in STEM. He believes there is no doubt that his participation in this programme will be of great benefit since he wishes to gain entrance into a highly ranked university of his choice.  

SPISE is an initiative of the Caribbean Science Foundation. The programme exposes aspiring STEM professionals to university-level courses in calculus, physics, biochemistry, and entrepreneurship as well as hands-on projects in computer programming and electronics. Since its inception in 2012, SPISE graduates have transitioned to top universities, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, Yale, Cornell, and Columbia.