Diary of a fresher: First week of school.

First days of school are always exciting and fun and highly anticipated.

However, except for the highly anticipated part, my first day of university was nothing like my previous 'first days'. I felt tiny and out of place in this new world. I cannot forget to mention that I got lost more than twice and felt really bad.

I was more than happy to return to my dorm room and re think my strategy for the next day. I made a conscious effort to look up all my classes on the visual tour online and boy did that help. Should have done it from the beginning!

On a happier note, I really enjoyed my first day of Writing for Journalism. I can tell the class will be a lot of hard work but also fun, especially since it only has 20 people compared to my other classes. More about that later.

The class was basically a meet and greet and I found out I was the only Bajan in my class..W.O.W. Nonetheless, it will be a good semester.

Now back to my other classes. Those foundation classes are HUGE!. I could not believe it when more than 200 students strolled into the lecture theatre for English. What a culture shock I received!

I was accustomed to classes of 20 or 25 the most back in Barbados. However like everything else at university, it will take a while to get accustomed to. The rest of the week went by pretty quickly and all in a blur.

Thankfully it is over and I got a feel of the university. I spent the weekend rebooting and I am now ready for the second week. It will be tough but God will see me through. I am now on a quest to be the best!

UWI and UTech combine for joint champs

Photo credit: Norman Grindley/Jamaica Gleaner

Now this is what you call a good idea whose time has come.

Jamaica (and the Caribbean's) two biggest universities, University of the West Indies, Mona and the University of Technology, are getting together for a joint sports championship series.

The event, the UWI-UTech Sports Championship, is set for September 18th at the Mona campus. Athletes from the two tertiary institutions will compete in Twenty20 cricket, women's volleyball, men's basketball, fastnet netball and men's football.

UTech's director of sports, the visionary Anthony Davis, explained that the aim of the joint meet was to lay the foundation for a genuinely competitive intercollegiate system that would induce student athletes to stay in tertiary education.

"We have a very elaborate high school system but over the years when they (students) graduate, a lot of them will stop playing sports and a minuscule number will get scholarships to go overseas. If we are to continue maintaining the level of success that we are experiencing now in track and field and football, or even cricket, we must have a developed collegiate system, which is the natural step after high school for persons to come into the collegiate system,"

Davis told the Gleaner at the launch.

As far as CSL is concerned, this is a brilliant move. As Davis rightly pointed out, not every talented athlete is going to get an athletics scholarship in the States, especially when  you consider they are competing against thousands of other athletes in the US and from around the world. Which means that hundreds of talented kids - Carifta gold medal winners, genuinely promising athletes, fall through the cracks.

So kudos to UWI and UTech for this initiative - may it go from strength to strength.

Mexican Government Scholarship 2011

Worth: Enrollment and tuition fees, books, transportation from Mexico City to the University on commencement and completion of the programme, medical insurance, allowance of US$543 for master’s programmes and US $678 for doctoral programmes.


Offering Organisation: Government of Mexico

Requirements: Scholarships are available for specialisation, postgraduate degrees or research, post doctoral stays, artistic creation residences, high level conferences, residences for Mexicanists researchers, residences for media collaborators and special chairs for visiting professors.

Scholarships are not open to residents of Mexico, foreign diplomats recognised in Mexico or their relatives or individuals holding dual citizenship [of Mexico] by naturalisation.

Contact: Your Ministry of Education or check http://becassre.gob.mx

More info: http://becassre.gob.mx

Deadline: September 17

Commonwealth Scholarship and Fellowship Plan – United Kingdom Award 2011

Worth: Tuition and examination fees, return airfare to the United Kingdom, thesis grant, initial arrival allowance, grant for expenses for approved travel, fieldwork costs. For scholars on three (3) year awards, a paid mid-term fare to their home country.


Allowances at the following rates:

Personal maintenance allowance - £ 828 per month or £1024 per month for those studying in the London Metropolitan area

For married scholars, a marriage allowance of £220 per month provided they live with their spouse

Child allowance of £136 per month for the first and £106 per month for the second and third child under the age of 16, provided they live with parent/scholar.

Offering Organisation: Government of the United Kingdom

Requirements: Scholarships are available for one year taught master’s degrees, six months of clinical training in Medicine or Dentistry, three year doctoral degree or 12 months’ non-degree study on a split-site basis to aid the completion of a doctoral degree undertaken at a university in the candidate’s home country.

Applicants must be Commonwealth citizens, hold a first degree with at least upper second class honours or a second class degree and a relevant postgraduate qualification, which would normally be a Master’s degree.

Contact: Your Ministry of Education.

More info: For application forms, check http://www.cscuk.org.uk/apply/developingcommonwealthscholarships.asp

Deadline: October 8

Fulbright Nexus Scholarship

Worth: Travel and research funding in the amount of $30,000 USD. Accommodations and meals for program seminar meetings, limited accident and sickness benefits.


Offering Organisation: Government of the United States

Requirements: Applicants should have a Ph.D. or equivalent professional/terminal degree. Candidates with a master’s degree are required to have a minimum of five years research experience. Preference will be given to early or mid-career academics, applied researchers and/or practitioners with research experience in the public, non-profit, or private sector. Preference will be given to applicants without recent U.S. experience.

Contact: The Public Affairs Section of the U.S. Embassy for your country or check https://apply.embark.com/student/fulbright/scholars/30/  for application forms and details.

More info: http://www.cies.org/nexus/

Deadline: November 15

Diary of a fresher: The Cross Over.

Photo credit: Queen B

University isn't all about the books. Had I known this before coming to the University of the West Indies Mona campus, I would have been better off.

It is all about a whole new world out there, and if you are on hall, then you have no choice but to shape up and adapt. Orientation to the hall was probably one of the hardest things ever, but at last night's Cross Over it was great.

After two weeks of being called a "pilgrim" and being made to do ridiculous stuff, we were given our final challenge on a quest to move on from being a fresher. I will not fool you and say it was easy, because it wasn't - it was one of the hardest things ever!

However it taught you many things that will essential in the university life. One that stuck with me and will forever is TEAM WORK. Working together is the best way to get the job done. There is no "I" in team, and the sooner we realize that the better it will be.

Now back to the Cross Over. It was a very tiring process, and especially trying to do it on a sprained ankle like me. Eventually at 5 a.m we were finally allowed to cross over!

BUT we are only REX's until our official ceremony next Sunday. What a feeling! However getting through that tedious process ensured that many of us slept until well into the evening on Sunday, hence the reason for this late post.

However, forgetting all things in the past and moving on because it is looks as though these three years at UWI will be the best ever. And as Obama said, "You cannot go forward looking back," so with eyes front, we are moving ahead. Looking forward to school in a few hours.

Until next time, i'm out!

Queen B!

Welcome the new school year ...

The date isn't quite correct for this year but still a very relevant joke for those who entered college or university this week and those entering come Monday...

Show Yuh Colo(u)rs!

Photo credit: Collegecolorsday.com

... Because it's College Colors Day in the USA today.

So if you are one of the more than 13,000 Caribbean students at colleges and universities in the US or among the hundreds of thousands more who have studied there in the past, then Friday, September 3rd is the day to put on/squeeze into your college jersey and represent.

College Colors Day is in its sixth year, having been around since 2005. It is:

"an annual celebration dedicated to promoting the traditions and spirit that make the college experience great by encouraging people across America to wear apparel of their favorite college or university throughout the day," 

according to collegecolorsday.com.

What is also is a pretty clever marketing tool for The Collegiate Licensing Company, which is the biggest collegiate trademark licensing and marketing company in the USA, so of course, not coincidentally, College Colors Day, coincides with the kick-off of intercollegiate athletics season, particularly football.

My Uni Experience: Ah Bajan Trini T'ing!

Everyone thinks that Bajans and Trinis don't like each other. But I beg to differ. I suppose, in theory we should not like them for real. They deprive us of our flying fish. They talk funny. They dare insinuate and even boldly argue that Carib is better than Banks. And yes, they probably do quite deserve the label of ‘Tricky-dadians'.

But still, I have a soft spot in my heart for them. In fact, I'll go further and shamefully confess...I love Trinis. There, I said it!

It wasn't always so. Please, let me explain my downfall. To be honest, I blame Mona - that's not another Trini, that's UWI.

I went through my first year there pretty much impervious to the charms of those oily people from the southern Caribbean. But then in my second year and again in my third, hordes of them descended upon UWI - to do geology, to do mass com, to do actuarial science...but most of all to brainwash good Bajans like myself.

The student balancing act

It used to be that university was the final step before entering the workplace. However, for increasing numbers of students, it is now at university that the first steps are made into the world of work, in all its gritty glory.

According to a report on student employment, ‘All Work and Low Pay' published by The National Union of Students in the United Kingdom, the number of full-time students working in paid employment rose by 54% between 1996 and 2006. The figures are eye-opening. The numbers of working male students increased by 47% during that time, while for female students, this increase was 67.5%.

Most work in low-paid jobs in retail and hospitality - some 40 % in retail and 21% in hotels and restaurants. Average salaries ranged from £6.21 an hour in retail and £5.70 in hospitality for men to even less for women - £5.98 in retail and £5.51 in hospitality. 

Most also work long hours considering that they are also full time students - the average was 14 hours per week. Some work even longer. At least 20% worked 15 to 20 hours per week and a further 20 % worked 20-plus hours.

So why do they do it? Why may you well end up doing it?

There are two main reasons, both having to do with need. They are the need for experience and the need for money.

A 'how to' guide on scholarship application

You have the transcript of your grades - stellar, of course.

You have your references and testimonials - all glowing, naturally.

You have in mind exactly what you are going to say during your interview before various demanding panels - it's all well thought out, earnest and compelling, obviously.

So you have everything you need for the scholarship application process, right? Read on for some useful advice on how to prepare yourself to go get other people's money. It may surprise you.

 Take time, make time.

Applying for scholarships is not for the impatient. It can be a long, tedious process of applying for many different scholarships, pestering the same pool of folk over and over again for testimonials and of endless essay writing.

What's that degree worth? Not much for some former EDMC students

Photo credit: Misty Keasler for Businessweek

There was a sobering story in the August 5 edition of Businessweek about how former students of the for-profit colleges  run by the Education Management Corp (EDMC).

You've definitely heard of these schools - the chain of Art Institute schools such as the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale are among their group and they are the second-largest chain of for-profit colleges after the University of Phoenix folk.

According to Businessweek's report, EDMC is under attack from former students and from government officials over the quality of its degrees and the tactics it uses to attract students.

Antigua Commercial Bank (ACB) Sir Louis H Lockhart Scholarship

Worth: Tuition, fees, books, supplies and/or equipment required for the programme.

Offering Organisation: Antigua Commercial Bank

Requirements: Applicants must be citizens of Antigua and Barbuda. Preference is given to applicants who are enrolled in or have been accepted by an accredited college, university or vocational educational institution. Preference will be given to completion of the final year of the study.

Contact: Legal/Secretariat Department, Antigua Commercial Bank,

Thames & St. Mary’s Streets, St. John’s, Antigua

More info: Antigua Commercial Bank

Deadline: May 31

Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship

Worth: US $26,000 or its equivalent.

Offering Organisation: Rotary Clubs of Barbados

Requirements: Applicants must be citizens of a country in which there is a Rotary Club. Applicants must have completed at least two years of university of college course work or must have a secondary school education and been employed for at least two years.

Contact: rotarybarbadossouth@gmail.com

More info: Rotary Club of Barbados

Deadline: August 31

Barbados National Oil Company Limited Scholarship

Worth: BD$30,000 (US$15,000)

Offering Organisation: Barbados National Oil Company Limited

Requirements: Available to Barbadian citizens pursuing studies in Petroleum Engineering at the University of the West Indies. Applicants must provide evidence of enrolment or acceptance and must be registered as full time students. Applicants must be under the age of 25 when the scholarship is first awarded and must have and maintain a passing grade of a B average of a GPA of 3.3. Applicants must agree to an internship during the summer vacation.

Contact: The Human Resources Manager, Barbados National Oil Company Limited, Woodbourne, St. Philip Tel 420-1498: Email brendahinds@bnocl.com

More info: As above

Deadline: August 13

Fulbright Science and Technology Scholarship

Worth: Full tuition and other fees, airfare, personal maintenance allowance

Offering Organisation: Government of the United States

Requirements: Offered globally. Applicants must have a GRE quantitative score of 700 or better (out of 800). A GRE subject score is also required from applicants who plan to study biology, biochemistry, call and molecular biology, chemistry, computer science, mathematics, and physics. The award is for PhD. studies in science, technology and engineering.

Contact: Juanita Lynch, Information Resource Associate at (246) 227-4102 or email at lynchjh@state.gov or fax (246) 429-5316

More info: US Embassy for Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean

Fulbright Foreign Student Scholarships

Worth: Full tuition and other fees, airfare, personal maintenance allowance

Offering Organisation: Government of the United States

Requirements: Open to nationals of Barbados and OECS states

Contact: Juanita Lynch, Information Resource Associate at (246) 227-4102 or email at lynchjh@state.gov or fax (246) 429-5316

More info: US Embassy for Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean

Deadline: July 15

Fulbright Faculty Development Scholarship

Worth: Tuition for up to two years, monthly personal allowance (varies according to location), book allowance, health insurance, round trip airfare and other study-related expenses related to graduate study.

Offering Organisation: Government of the United States

Requirements: Available for graduate study to teachers and professors nominated by institutions of higher education in Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, St. Kitts/Nevis, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

Contact: Juanita Lynch, Information Resource Associate at (246) 227-4102 or email at lynchjh@state.gov or fax (246) 429-5316

More info: US Embassy for Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean

Deadline: early May

Chinese Government Scholarships

Worth: Full tuition or research fees, basic learning materials, accommodation, living allowance, emergency medical care, comprehensive medical insurance, an initial settlement subsidy and an initial inter-city travel allowance. A monthly living allowance is paid at the following rates:

Undergraduates: 1400 yuan

Chinese language students: 1400 yuan

Master’s degree students: 1700 yuan

Doctoral degree students: 2000 yuan

Offering Organisation: Government of the Republic of China

Requirements: Available for undergraduate and postgraduate studies up to the doctoral level for citizens of Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago for programmes offered in China. At least one year’s language training in Chinese is required. Undergraduate candidates should be under the age of 25, while postgraduate candidates should be under the age of 35

Contact: Your local Ministry of Education

More info: Chinese Scholarship Council

Deadline: Early March

Brazilian Postgraduate Scholarships (PEC-PG)

Worth: Full tuition for a postgraduate programme within any field of expertise, as long as the chosen post-graduate course issues nationally valid diplomas and airfare back to own country.

Offering Organisation: Government of Brazil

Requirements: Candidates who have already taken part in the PEC-G programme may not apply for the PEC-PG unless they have returned to their own country for at least two years. Non-Portuguese speakers will be required to take a 1 year intensive language course for the first year. Applicants will be required to produce evidence of ability to finance their expenses while in Brazil. Applicants will be required to provide for their own support in Brazil which is estimated at a monthly minimum of US$400.

Contact: The Brazilian Embassy or Consulate in your island – click here for the full list check 

More info: Brazilian Government portal


Deadline: March/April