From left are: Ben Harris, Commissioner Jeremy Matlow, Commissioner Diane Williams-Cox, Calvin Mardembrough, Jessica Rogers, Stephen Knight and LINKS members Thyria Ansley, Linda Dilworth, Clinita Ford and Lililita Forbes Johnson.
PHILIPSBURG--New programmes being offered, admissions requirements and students’ performance were amongst the issues discussed when St. Maarten study financing representatives met with representatives of Florida Agricultural & Mechanical University (FAMU); Tallahassee Community College (TCC); Florida State University (FSU) and Lively Technical College (LTC) recently.
Also discussed was what can be done collectively to ensure that “St. Maarten students continue to make St. Maarten proud, as so many have done in the past. Senior study financing officer Calvin Mardembrough and his colleague Jessica Rogers held the discussions during a recent working visit to Tallahassee, Florida.
Mardembrough has been a constant visitor to Tallahassee since 2001 and he has built “a great network” of persons of influence in that closely-knit community with characteristics similar to those of the St. Maarten community, caretaker Minister of Education, Culture, Youth and Sports (ECYS) Wycliffe Smith said during the Council of Ministers press briefing on Wednesday. “These characteristics have proven to be the perfect fit for a sister city agreement that has produced so much positive results through the years.”
According to Smith, all the institutions that the two officials met with had “high praises for our study financing recipients.”
An anniversary event on the St. Maarten/Tallahassee Sister City Agreement held during the visit was well attended, and included long-time friends of St. Maarten instrumental in setting up the sister city agreement and lending their full support throughout the years.
Mardembrough and Rogers also represented the Ministry of ECYS at the 20th anniversary of the twin-city partnership between St. Maarten and Tallahassee. They presented a plaque of appreciation from the Ministry to Mayor John Dailey, who also read a proclamation honouring the occasion.
The study financing representatives also visited Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, where the Ministry has a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU).
Smith said the Council of Ministers had recently given the green light for him as ECYS caretaker Minister to sign an MOU with a branch of Nova Southeastern University located in Puerto Rico. This branch is the College of Computing and Engineering. “This means that our students who want to pursue computing and engineering can stay right here in the region and obtain their Master’s degree in Engineering. All in all, Mardembrough and Rogers have been able to acquire a lot of information and experience on this trip, which will surely be useful in the coming study-financing application period,” Smith said.
