The Office of International Education at Brooklyn’s Medgar Evers College says the college will on Thursday, May 5 host Trinidad and Tobago’s Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley.
The Office said on Tuesday that Rowley will keynote its Inaugural International Education Awards Ceremony at 6:30 pm in the college’s Founders Auditorium, 1650 Bedford Ave. (at Crown Street).
“The Awards Ceremony is free, open to the general public, and will recognize pillars of the community who have been supportive of international studies at Medgar Evers College,” said the Office of International Education in a statement.
The Office said it “organizes and manages study abroad as a critical component of its offerings.”
“Knowledge gained through study abroad, cultural immersion, experiential learning and other forms of international education prepares students for success in today’s global marketplace,” said former Grenada United Nations’ Ambassador, Eugene Pursoo, Director of International Education at Medgar Evers College, a predominantly Black college in Central Brooklyn.
“It also fosters a global environment of greater understanding and tolerance,” he added, stating that the college has sent students to study abroad programs in, among other places, Australia, China, Costa Rica, Ethiopia, France, Grenada, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Panama, Spain, and Trinidad & Tobago.
In conjunction with Dr. Rowley’s visit, Eugene said the Office of International Education will host a ticketed VIP Reception as a fundraiser to support study abroad scholarships for Medgar Evers College students.
Caribbean Life, Angostura Distillers, Golden Krust Caribbean Bakery & Grill, the Trinidad & Tobago Alliance, and the Trinidad and Tobago United Community Association (T.A.T.U.C.A.) have already signed on as sponsors.
Rowley’s visit to Medgar Evers College is part of a wider U.S. visit in which he is expected to meet with US Vice President Joe Biden, according to reports.
On Jan. 1, popular Brooklyn-based Caribbean magazine, Everybody’s, named Rowley as its “Person of the Year” for 2015.
The magazine, which is published and owned by Grenadian-born Herman Hall, said Rowley, who led the People’s National Movement (PNM) to victory, on Sept.7, by winning 23 of 41 parliamentary seats, “was the year’s most influential news maker in the Caribbean.
“All eyes were on him and the Trinidad and Tobago electorate,” Everybody’s said then. “The people of Trinidad and Tobago, regardless of political affiliation, deserve high praise for dignifying themselves in the keenly-contested election.
“We, Americans, as we prepare for the 2016 presidential primaries and national election, need to copy a page from Trinidadians,” it added. “We thank our readers and social media friends for helping us to declare Prime Minister Rowley as Everybody’s Person of the Year.”
Since 1978, the second year of Everybody’s publication, it has been naming an individual of Caribbean heritage as its “Person of the Year.”
During its early years, the magazine held a gala dinner in New York to honor that person.
Recipients who have attended that dinner included St. Lucian Nobel Laureate Sir Arthur Lewis; the late Caribbean American Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm, of Barbadian and Guyanese roots; and the late Prime Ministers of Barbados and Dominica, Tom Adams and Dame Mary Eugenia Charles.
Medgar Evers College prides itself as being “a growing institution, offering both Associate and Baccalaureate degrees.”
The nearly 7,000-member student body comprises students who were primarily born in the Caribbean or are of Caribbean background.
For more information on how to support the Office of International Education at Medgar Evers College, please contact the Office at 718-270-5136 or email study
