Seven more graduate from Cuban universities

Seven more Vincentians have graduated from universities in the Republic of Cuba and will return home over the next several weeks.{{more}}

Graduating from the University of Oriente, Santiago de Cuba, in the eastern province of Cuba is Yoni Jardine from the Mesopotamia Valley, who pursued studies in Mechanical Engineering.

He is joined by female engineer Natoya Thomas, who pursued Civil Engineering at the University of Camaguey and, like Yoni, looks forward to putting her newly acquired expertise to work for the benefit of the development of their homeland. Yoni returned home Friday, July 11.

Meanwhile, the area of sports development stands to benefit from two more graduates of the International School of Sports and Physical Education in Havana. Former secondary school teachers Shernan Jacobs and Stedroy Deane proudly received their university degrees on Friday, July 12, in Havana. Shernan, who hails from Lowmans Windward, is a former student of the St Vincent Grammar School and a qualified Level 1 swimming coach who taught physical education at the West St George Secondary School before leaving to pursue tertiary education in Cuba.

The other graduate, Stedroy Deane, who hails from Sandy Bay and is proud of his Garifuna roots, went to Cuba after serving in the classrooms at his Alma Mater the Emmmanuel High School Mesopotamia from 2002 to 2007. Stedroy is the outgoing president of the Vincentian Cuban Students Association. Both look forward to continue to uplift the levels of instruction in their chosen fields upon return.

Meanwhile, three nurses, Kayasma Charles, Reah Dasent and Cashika Olliviere, will join their counterparts who graduated before them, armed with their degrees in nursing after five years at university, with rotations among Cuban hospitals in Matanzas. Cashika also had the distinction of receiving a special award at this graduation ceremony, which saw students from Grenada, St Lucia and Jamaica being among the 27 foreign students receiving their nursing degrees from a class of over 100.

St Vincent and the Grenadines has, to date, 47 graduate nurses from the Republic of Cuba.