The University of the West Indies (UWI) Five Islands Campus, located in Antigua and Barbuda, is preparing to mark a key milestone for hundreds of its graduating students on Saturday, October 10, with two separate graduation ceremonies that will open the university’s annual cross-regional graduation season. Alongside celebrating the achievements of the newest cohort of graduates, the campus will bestow honorary doctorates on two accomplished individuals: Olympian and community leader Thea LaFond Gadson and veteran journalist Don Rojas.
To ensure that friends, family members and supporters from across the globe can share in the celebration, both ceremonies will be streamed live via UWItv, enabling remote attendance for anyone unable to be present on campus. The first event, scheduled to kick off at 10 a.m. local Antigua and Barbuda time, will recognize graduates from the School of Business and Management. This session will feature a valedictory address from Kathalia Valentine, an outstanding graduate who earned her Bachelor of Science in Management Studies with a specialized concentration in Entrepreneurship. During this morning ceremony, LaFond Gadson will be awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws degree in recognition of her contributions to her field and community.
The afternoon celebration, commencing at 4 p.m. local time, will honor graduates from three academic divisions: the School of Health and Behavioural Sciences, the School of Humanities and Education, and the School of Science, Computing and Artificial Intelligence. Leading the valedictory remarks for this session will be Chemique Harris-Benjamin, who completed her Bachelor of Education in Mathematics Education with distinction. Rojas will be honored with an honorary Doctor of Letters degree during this afternoon gathering for his decades of impact in media and public discourse.
This event at the Five Islands Campus serves as the starting point for a series of UWI graduation ceremonies that will take place across the Caribbean over the coming month. Next on the calendar is the Cave Hill Campus in Barbados, which will host its own graduation celebrations on October 17. Following that, the St. Augustine Campus in Trinidad and Tobago will hold its ceremonies from October 22 to 24, and the Mona Campus in Jamaica will wrap its graduation from November 5 to 7 November. Closing out the 2024 graduation season is UWI’s Global Campus, which will host a fully virtual graduation ceremony on November 14 at 6 p.m. Eastern Caribbean time, accommodating its distributed student body across multiple time zones and regions.