Xavier Jon Bass Faculty of Science and Technology 2020 Top Graduate

Story Credit: UWI, Mona Campus

Born in the beautiful federation of St. Kitts and Nevis, Xavier-Jon Bass is a proud graduate of Faculty of Science and Technology. After graduating in 2020 with the highest GPA in the Faculty, Xavier went on to pursue graduate studies at Imperial College London where he serves as a Quantitative Analyst for their Student Investment Fund.

Xavier entered the Faculty of Science and Technology in 2017 as a UWI Open Scholar and St. Kitts-Nevis State Scholar (2017) pursuing a BSc Actuarial Science. He fondly recalls his time residing on Irvine Hall for the duration of his studies where he served as President of Irvine’s Honour Society and Academic Support. There, he began serving as a tutor for Irvine Hall and later for the Department of Mathematics, The UWI, Mona. During the second year of his studies, he was a recipient of the Canada-CARICOM Leadership Scholarship (2018).

Consequently, he represented The UWI abroad at the University of Waterloo as an exchange student in Canada where he passed his first professional actuarial exam. Having successfully sat and passed two more prior to graduation, Xavier took an interest in applications of modern statistics in finance. His undergraduate research project used machine learning to dynamically optimise a portfolio of stocks from the Jamaican Stock Exchange.

Notably, among several other Departmental, Faculty and University awards, Xavier was consistently awarded as the student with the highest GPA in the Faculty of Science and Technology each year of his UWI journey. His extracurricular activities during this time involved serving as President of St. Kitts-Nevis Student Association – Jamaica, Block Secretary at Irvine, board advisor to Carton Lowrie Debate and Oratorical Society and member of the King’s Sanctuary church.

Currently, Xavier is pursuing a MSc Risk Management and Financial Engineering at Imperial College London. After completion, he aspires to develop the Caribbean’s financial sector. Outside of academics, his hobbies include reading, martial arts and playing the piano.

His advice to current FST students comes from Colossians 3:23, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters.”