On Friday, September 9th, 2016, the Ministry of Education – Eleuthera District, hosted representatives of the EducationUSA program from College Ready Bahamas for a one day workshop dubbed, “All About Community Colleges with Hillsborough Community College” (EducationUSA/College Ready Bahamas is an advising center located at the Town Center Mall in Nassau, Bahamas, supported by the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, which actively promotes U.S. higher education by offering information about accredited educational institutions in the United States) .
Shanelle Cleare, Education and Cultural Specialist with the U.S. State Department, explained the purpose of the visit to Eleuthera and islands to follow, saying, “This is a new program and a new concept to the Bahamas. This has not been done in the Bahamas before. We really wanted to promote Community Colleges as another viable option for our students. The cost of College and Tertiary education is extremely expensive. Community College provides a great alternative option. It’s more cost effective for our students and the idea behind it is to establish a two plus two program, so that students would start with their Associate’s Degree first from the Community College and then move on to a larger College or University and get their Bachelor’s Degree and hopefully, potentially if they are interested, to move on to a Masters or Ph.D.”
She added, “That’s the reason we’ve skyped in the University of Cincinnati as well to tie it in, and to show the range of the two plus two program. We are doing the program in Abaco next week and also in Cat Island the following week, and then we will be doing presentations in Nassau as well with three different public schools each week. Also, there will be an evening session at ‘College Ready’, where EducationUSA is located on Wednesday evenings from 6pm – 7pm for all parents and the general public that are interested.”
Shanelle Cleare was accompanied by Penny Rechkemmer, Public Affairs Officer, with the United States Embassy; Carla Turnquest, EducationUSA Advisor – Bahamas; and Matt Barrett, Manager International Student Recruitment at Hillsborough Community College.
Fifteen students from each 12th grade class in the Eleuthera District were invited to attend the workshop, held at the Resource Center in Savannah Sound, which got underway at 10am on the morning of the 9th, with opening remarks by Penny Rechkemmer. Carla Turnquest, EducationUSA Advisor – based at the Nassau, College Ready Bahamas location, then presented an overall review of the EducationUSA 5 Step Program, which was summarized as: 1. Research Your Options; 2. Finance Your Studies; 3. Complete Your Application; 4. Apply for Your Student Visa; and 5. Prepare for Your Departure.
Matt Barrett then joined Carla Turnquest and they together presented on the topic: ‘The Community College Advantage’, before the session took a break for lunch. During the afternoon session, the students were given a more detailed presentation about Hillsborough Community College, located in Tampa, Florida, then had the opportunity to speak with representatives from Bunker Hill Community College in Charlestown, Massachusetts as well as the University of Cincinnati in Ohio. After question and answer sessions, the workshop wrapped up around 3pm.
Mrs. Turnquest commented following the workshop, summing up the experience and how it had been made possible, saying, “This was a special grant given by the US Embassy to work along with EducationUSA in order to bring this together… This program was birthed because we realized that students did not understand the true nature of a four year versus a two year, and the advantages of going to a two year first. We wanted to talk about work options, something called OP2, and that’s neatly inserted between an Associate’s and a Bachelor’s Degree. We wanted to talk about funding – we wanted to reach out to the Family Island students, because a lot of things are Nassau centric. So we wanted to expose both the Nassau kids and the Family Island students, and find a way to merge the two…”
She continued, “It’s been amazing so far. We had all the high schools in Eleuthera represented, so we had 71 students today. Great questions were asked and the students were all engaged. They are all super qualified for the opportunities out there. They would have learned about a month’s worth of information in this short period of time between 10am and 3pm today.”
A College Fair with a wider representation of tertiary institutions from the U.S. will be held in Nassau next month, shared Mrs. Turnquest, on October 21st and 22nd, 2016.
