Caribbean students benefit from UWI Toronto scholarships

July 13, 2022

‘Tonight is the best night of my life’.

With all he has accomplished in a stellar career, Walter Chin flattered organizers of the annual University of the West Indies (UWI) Toronto Benefit Awards with the pronouncement after receiving his Vice Chancellor’s honour on June 25.

“To be acknowledged by my fellow West Indians bear more meaning to me than any other accolade I have received,” the award-winning fashion & celebrity photographer remarked to rousing applause. “Great photography is about capturing the human spirit and having a view on the world that is unique.”

Chin said his world view was shaped by his childhood growing up in Montego Bay.

“Jamaica’s motto, ‘Out of Many, One People’, is the lens that I bring to my work daily,” he noted. “There is literally a part of the Caribbean in every shot I take, whether it is for Vogue, GQ, Chanel or Armani. Jamaican and Caribbean culture is global and I want to thank UWI for always acknowledging the importance of cultural impact, whether it is through music, literature or visual art. Let’s face it, the most stylish people come from ‘yard’ and we should let the world know this.”

Walter Chin and his cousin Tony Wong who is a Toronto Star Contributing Columnist (Photo by Ron Fanfair)

Introduced to photography at Marc Garneau Collegiate Institute after leaving Jamaica in 1975 to pursue higher education, Chin dedicated the award to’ every child who is a dreamer in every nook and corner of the Caribbean and beyond’.

“It goes to show that you do have a voice, that your vision is important on the global stage and anything is possible because I am living proof of that,” he added.

Each year, individuals and organizations making significant contributions in Canada and around the world are honoured with Vice Chancellor’s, Chancellor’s, Luminary and G. Raymond Chang Awards.

The other Vice Chancellor’s Award recipients were aerospace engineer Dr. Camille Wardrop Alleyne and 2021 World Food Prize winner Dr. Shakuntala Haraksingh Thilsted. They were born and raised in Trinidad & Tobago.

Close friend Cheryl Gonsalves accepted the award for Denmark-based Haraksingh Thilsted who was in Lisbon for the United Nations Ocean Conference.

They met 62 years ago in elementary school in rural Trinidad.

Accompanied by her son Jerome Gonsalves, Cheryl Gonsalves accepted the Vice Chancellor’s Award on behalf of close friend Dr. Shakantula Haraksingh Thilsted (Photo by Ron Fanfair)

“It is quite the honour to be receiving this award on behalf of her,” said Gonsalves who has undergraduate and graduate degrees from UWI. “When she called and asked me to do it, I jumped at the opportunity. She was always diligent a very good student.”

The Pan American Health Organization, which has collaborated with UWI to offer a postgraduate diploma and certification program in Health Policy & Health Systems, was the recipient of the Chancellor’s Award, Toronto Metropolitan University Chancellor Janice Fukakusa was presented the G. Raymond Chang Award and Canadian sprinter Andre DeGrasse and Jamaican sculptor Basil Watson were the Luminary Award winners.

UWI Vice Chancellor Sir Hilary Beckles (second from left) and event Co-patron Donette Chin-Loy Chang (third from right) with award winners Walter Chin (l), Janice Fukakusa, Alexandria Waithe, who represented her brother Andre DeGrasse, and Basil Watson (Photo by Ron Fanfair)

This year marked the 13th anniversary of the signature event that has raised about $3 million that has allowed nearly 700 Caribbean students – many of them the first in their family — to pursue post-secondary education and fulfill their dream of graduating from university and becoming assets to their countries.

It costs approximately Can$3,000 to sponsor a student’s scholarship at UWI.

The scholarships have been a source of encouragement for many talented Caribbean students seeking financial support to complete their university education.

Final-year Linguistics & Language Education student Tajay Henry is extremely thankful for the support.

Raised by a single mother in a ‘tenement yard’ in St. Catherine, Jamaica with his six siblings, he managed to avoid gangs and overcome family traumas to become the first in his family to pursue higher education.

Tajay Henry benefitted from a UWI Toronto Benefit scholarship (Photo contributed)

“Though it was difficult to remain positive and hopeful, I was determined that these overwhelming circumstances were not going to determine my fate,” the National Dance Theatre Company of Jamaica member said. “As I reflect on the previous three years, words are not enough to express how grateful I am for everything you have done for me through your contributions.

“It has helped to fully fund my tuition and living expenses. Your generosity has tremendously affected our lives in many ways. I beam with unexplainable joy with my teeth shining bright as a diamond as I head to classes knowing that I am fully funded. Our circumstances would have it that we should not be where we are today. However, you have made us understand that we can achieve our goals and dreams.”

UWI Vice Chancellor Sir Hilary Beckles thanked the Canadian team and its supporters for their time and generosity.

He noted that the university has demonstrated extraordinary resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic that has brought many institutions to their knees.

“When the pandemic struck, we did not back away from our duties and responsibilities to our students and our region,” Beckles said. “We did not close our gates and we did not send home our students. We buckled down and transitioned over 600 programs from face to face to online, we got our students and our staff mobilized and we enabled all our students to complete their education. We enabled two generations of students to graduate.”

Elizabeth Buchanan-Hind is UWI’s Executive Director with responsibility for Institutional Advancement (Photo by Ron Fanfair)

From a global field of about 30,000 universities and elite research institutes, UWI stands in the top 1.5 per cent in 2022 that is up from three per cent the previous year.

Wherever his travels take him, Beckles said university Vice Chancellors, Principals and Presidents inquire how UWI is able to maintain a first-class ranked educational institution in an economy that has not grown in three decades.

“I say it is because we have a community of committed people,” he pointed out. “We have strong friends, we have partners, we have allies, we have benefactors and this network that keeps this university at the top because the people of the Caribbean, God knows, deserve a first-class university. There is, however, a very long way to go as the Caribbean has been struggling to adjust to the global economy. Many of our industries are not competitive and investments are not where they should be. It is a very difficult environment and we do suffer this systemic malaise.”

Though poverty is increasing in the Caribbean, Beckles maintains he will not be part of any institution that denies children of the poor access to higher education.

‘The most important thing in the Caribbean right now is the education of the masses of people who are the citizens of the future,” he added. “Therefore, you here tonight are part of a bigger conversation. You might not be aware of it, but your philanthropy, your giving, your coming here to give scholarships to brilliant young people who just happen, like the circumstances of history, to be born poor is important. They are gifted and all they need is an opportunity. If you look at the world in the last 60 years in which most Caribbean islands became independent, Canada has been the most reliable partner to the people of the Caribbean.”

Counting among its graduates several heads of government, a Nobel laureate and many distinguished leaders and professionals, UWI has contributed the most to the intellectual, cultural, social and economic development of the English-speaking Caribbean in the latter half of the 20th century.

Through the generous support of lead chair and sponsor Scotiabank, other companies and individuals, the lives of hundreds of Caribbean youths have been transformed in the last decade.

Event Co-patron Donette Chin-Loy Chang (l) made a special presentation to Scotiabank executive Anya Schnoor (Photo by Ron Fanfair)

Scotiabank has supported the event since the inception in 2010.

“We are immensely pleased to contribute to the future of the Caribbean,” said Anya Schnoor who is the Executive Vice-President for the Caribbean, Central America & Uruguay for International Banking. “Education is the heart of the Caribbean prosperity and transformation and UWI has been and continues to be a driving force behind the advancement of learning and the dissemination of knowledge not only in the region, but in the rest of the world. By investing in these scholarships, we are planting the seeds of the future, helping unlock the potential of the whole region and creating a hopeful future for our region.”