According to Oma Sewhdat, president of St. Helen University in Vieux, St. Lucia, the university is offering to Guyanese nationals two full tuition scholarships and “a 50 percent one-year tuition scholarship to all students currently enrolled in medical programs anywhere in the Caribbean, including Guyana.” The university will be opening its doors on Jan. 7, 2013 for the first time.
Said Sewhdat, “Through these scholarships, we want (university) to ensure that we make our high-quality programs accessible to Guyanese students so that they can be part of our innovative programs delivered by highly-skilled and experienced physicians and medical educators from the U.S., Canada and the Caribbean.” This offer, he added, is a way of “contributing to Guyana’s youth and development.”
Sewhdat contends that as the medical school’s curriculum is informed by the standards and program designs of the WHO and other international organisations, “We are sure that Guyanese students who come to St. Helen will be assets to Guyana when they return, championing health as critical element in the development of people, communities and the country. In so doing, they will be part of the change needed at national and international levels in the arena of health and development.”
Potential students may visit the university’s website www.shu.com.lc to learn more about the university, its programs, faculty and for submission of applications. They may also register for webinar sessions with Mr. Sewdat and senior faculty heads “including Guyanese doctors Dr. Alden Chesney (Canadian resident) and Dr. Max Hanoman (Guyanese resident), and Trinidadian Dr. Dan Ramdath (Canadian resident).” St. Helen University Medical School, which is Guyanese owned, is the newest medical school in St. Lucia.
