Last Thursday, they celebrated.
So what happens next for the graduates of the H. Lavity Stoutt Community College?
To find out, I interviewed several of them after their commencement ceremony, and I asked them to stay in touch over the coming year.
Some have their future carefully mapped out.
The week before graduation, Robyn Edmondson was elated to receive an acceptance letter to the University of Central Florida in Orlando. (“Go Knights!” she gushed.)
She intends to enrol in the school’s pre-med programme.
Her friends, she said, are similarly ambitious.
“A few are a bit undecided, but overall most of them know exactly what they want to do and where they want to go,” said Ms. Edmondson, who earned an associate’s degree in general science at HLSCC.
Nearby was Kladius Maynard, one of the two graduates who earned a perfect 4.0 grade point average.
In the fall, Mr. Maynard will head to the University of Miami to continue his studies in literature. He’s considering a career in law or marketing, but for now one of his biggest concerns is his future roommate, who he recently tried to “friend” on Facebook.
“He hasn’t responded,” Mr. Maynard said. “Hopefully he responds by the end of the summer.”
Further abroad
Princess London will go further abroad, to Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
“I was looking for Christian schools, and my mother suggested to me Oral Roberts because she knew he was a famous Christian man,” said Ms. London, who plans to take courses that build on her associate’s degree in business administration.
Like most of the other graduates I interviewed, she hopes to return to the Virgin Islands after completing her studies.
“I want to be a forensic accountant, and there are not many forensic accountants in the Caribbean,” she said.
Scholarship hopes
Chenaki Samuel wants to attend university as well, but her plans are not a sure thing yet.
“I just got accepted to Georgia State University, and I applied for a scholarship here, so I’m waiting on them to see how I’m gonna pay for college and all of that,” she said.
She is tentatively considering pursuing a bachelor’s degree in business administration, but admitted that her plans are not set in stone.
“I’m a pretty indecisive person,” she said, adding that she’ll have to be wary of what proved to be one of her biggest distractions at HLSCC: friends.
Two of them — along with two cousins — already attend Georgia State, and three more plan to enrol.
“It’s a big school, so we might not even get to see each other as much, but still,” she chuckled.
Entrepreneurs
Other graduates are entrepreneurs in the making.
Troya Audaine wants to open a bakery.
“I like to eat,” she said with a grin.
To work toward that goal, she hopes to start a bachelor’s degree in management in the fall. She hasn’t applied to schools yet, but she’s considering Missouri Southern State University, which recently sent representatives to meet with HLSCC students.
Diondre Liburd is already working at his family’s business, Liburd’s Electrical Services.
He hopes to take over the company one day after further study in electrical engineering, but for now he’ll continue working after a short celebratory vacation.
He is among many HLSCC graduates who balanced their studies with work.
Dwain Frett, who held various jobs during his seven years at HLSCC, has worked for about a year at government’s Central Statistics Office, where he does data entry.
“I’ve been everywhere — changed majors, everything,” Mr. Frett said. “I been through it all. I failed classes, dropped classes.”
But in the end, he added, “I kind of figured it out.”
Now, he hopes to work for government for another two years in order to qualify for a scholarship to study abroad.
The workforce
Other graduates are entering the job market for the first time.
Debbian Herbert hopes to attend nursing school in St. Kitts, but that goal will have to wait.
“I don’t have any finances right now to go to school, so I’ll be working first and then hopefully going away next year,” said Ms. Herbert, who earned an associate’s degree in general studies with a biology concentration.
She would like to work at Peebles Hospital, but the job search has been challenging.
“I’ve been looking,” said Ms. Herbert, who wants to be a paediatric nurse. “It’s kind of hard because I don’t have any experience; I never worked before.”
Saving money
Jeloni Willie also needs to save money before going abroad to study, but he already has a job: His work at Virgin Gorda Transport, which operates Speedy’s Ferry Services, helped put him through HLSCC.
The VG native currently works as a deck hand and an office agent for the company, but he hopes his newly acquired associate’s degree in engineering will open new doors.
“What my passion is is to fix engines on boats and vehicles,” he said. “So after I graduate here, I’m going to see if I can’t get transferred into a different division in the business.”
Eventually, he hopes to go abroad to earn a bachelor’s degree in a similar technical field.
But he doesn’t expect the road to be easy: Young men in the VI face many challenges, he said.
“I did fall off the wagon sometimes: I did stuff I wasn’t supposed to do, but at the end of the day I wanted to make my mother proud; I wanted to make myself proud and do something with my life,” he said. “I have painted a vision in my head that I’m gonna have a wife, four kids and a big, beautiful house, cars — and I know I can’t get none of that stuff unless I’ve got my degrees behind me.”
After speaking with Mr. Willie and his fellow graduates, I don’t doubt that they’ll succeed. And I plan to follow up with them throughout the coming year to report on their progress. Stay tuned.
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