A decades-long partnership between a philanthropic organization and a Belizean secondary school has reached a new milestone, as the Waterloo Charitable Trust has announced a $95,000 donation to fully renovate and modernize Anglican Cathedral College (ACC)’s aging information technology lab. The transformative gift was formally presented during a short, meaningful ceremony held on the campus’ weekly Wednesday morning mass, an event that brought together the school’s entire student body and teaching staff. Lord Michael Ashcroft, the founder of the trust, personally handed the ceremonial cheque to ACC principal Paulette Augustus, marking the latest chapter in 32 years of sustained support for the institution.
The full donation will be allocated to a comprehensive overhaul of the existing IT facility, bringing much-needed upgrades that will benefit students across multiple academic departments. Under the renovation plan, the school will receive 40 brand-new computers: 30 of these devices will be installed in the upgraded main lab, while the remaining 10 will be deployed to the literature room and library to support remedial instruction in mathematics and English. Beyond new computing hardware, the project also includes structural upgrades to the lab space itself: a replacement ceiling, new tiled flooring, modern student and instructor workstations, and two large wall-mounted flat-screen displays to facilitate group instruction and collaborative learning.
Speaking at the ceremony, Lord Ashcroft reflected on the long-running connection between the trust and ACC, which stretches back to 1994. That year, he made his first financial contribution to help the school launch its very first computer lab, at a moment when personal computing was just beginning to enter widespread commercial and educational use around the world. Addressing ACC students directly, Ashcroft emphasized the unprecedented pace of technological change that the current generation will experience in their lifetimes. “The innovations in technology and artificial intelligence you will witness over your lifetimes will be beyond what you can think about today,” he told the assembled crowd, adding that he was delighted to return to the campus to help expand the school’s tech capabilities once again.
For school leadership, the donation comes at exactly the right moment to address a long-standing barrier to student learning. Principal Augustus explained that prior to the gift, the old IT lab was in such poor condition that it was “not conducive at all” to effective instruction, even as technology has become a core component of nearly every subject taught at ACC. She noted that the school’s core mission is to prepare graduates to enter the modern workforce by building strong digital literacy skills that employers increasingly demand. “We are preparing our students and envisioning what we want our students to achieve in leaving ACC and being technologically sound in order to be equipped for the jobs that they can get into,” Augustus said. “With this whole development and renewal of the lab, there is so much more that we can accomplish. Our teachers now have the resources that they need to teach.”