May 25, 2004 – Participants in the University of the Virgin Islands 10th annual Summer Institute for Future Global Leaders in the Caribbean were told on Tuesday that they "have a nation to build and a people to serve."
The remarks were by Leon L. Higgs, president of the College of the Bahamas, in his keynote address as the two-week leadership development program got under way on the UVI St. Thomas campus.
The institute is designed to prepare university juniors, seniors and graduate students for leadership roles. This year, 49 students from 21 institutions of higher learning in the Caribbean and on the U.S. mainland are taking part in the program, which has "Global Leaders for a Dynamic Environment" as its theme.
They are from UVI, Ana G. Mendez-del-Este, Eastern New Mexico University, H. Lavity Stoutt Community College, Lincoln University, Morehouse College, Southern University, Tuskeegee University, the University of Guyana, the University of Quiqueya in Haiti, the University of the West Indies
UVI President LaVerne Ragster urged the students to take advantages of their opportunity to network and exchange ideas. "You won't leave here the same way that you came; otherwise, we have failed you, and you have failed yourselves," she said.
Higgs noted that he first met Solomon Sentongo-Kabuka, director of the institute and UVI business professor, several years ago at a conference in South Africa. Higgs said he was impressed by the diversity of the institute students, saying their backgrounds represent the strength of the Caribbean people, "a composite" of many nations and experiences.
The institute will include field trips and workshops in cross-cultural communication and leadership principles. Some of the offerings:
Monday, May 31:
11 a.m. — a European Forum, conducted by Louis Lafili of Lafili, Van Crombrugghe & Partners of Belgium
2 p.m. – A workshop conducted by Everlyn Lallemand, UVI humanities professor and executive director of the Centre de Leadership, d'Education et de Formation in Haiti.
Wednesday, June 2:
9 a.m. — An Africa Forum.
8 p.m. – A World Forum open to the general public, in the UVI Sports & Fitness Center, featuring Patrick Lewis, Antigua's ambassador to the United Nations; Robert Millette, director of the Global Studies Institute at Lincoln University and ambassador-at-large from Grenada; and Carlyle Corbin, V.I. representative for external affairs.
Thursday, June 3:
7:30 p.m. — A Leaders Forum in the Sports & Fitness Center with Anguilla Chief Minister Osbourne Fleming.
Admission to the public forums is free. For further information, call 693-1309.
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