标签： Dominica

Against the global backdrop of rising youth unemployment and a growing demand for entrepreneurial training, Dominican business leader Marilyn A. Cuffy-Morris has launched a groundbreaking annual program designed to empower the next generation of business builders. Titled the Annual MAANZ Studentpreneur Youth Showcase and Marketplace, the initiative made its official debut on July 15, 2026 — a date aligned with the United Nations’ World Youth Skills Day, chosen to reinforce the program’s core mission of equipping young people with tools for sustainable career success. The 2026 launch event carried the unifying theme “Discover your talent. Build your future.”

The United Nations established World Youth Skills Day to draw global attention to the critical need for investing in youth skill development, specifically for employment, dignified work, and entrepreneurial ventures. With this mandate in mind, Cuffy-Morris’s initiative was crafted to go beyond one-off networking events, offering a sustained ecosystem of support for young aspiring entrepreneurs.

Participants at the inaugural event gained access to a wide range of hands-on learning and connection opportunities. Attendees were invited to build professional relationships, take part in interactive skills-focused business games, and support peer growth by purchasing products developed by fellow young entrepreneurs. The event also facilitated collaborative problem-solving sessions, where participants worked together to identify common barriers to early-stage business success and co-create actionable solutions. All attendees are invited to join the growing Studentpreneur movement, an ongoing community dedicated to continuous youth development, and gain access to the initiative’s new digital platform.

During the launch, organizers unveiled two key complementary projects to extend the initiative’s impact year-round. The first is the MAANZ Skills Website, a digital hub that allows skilled business owners and industry managers to promote their ventures while connecting to a broader network of like-minded professionals across the region. The second addition is the “Pain to Profits” podcast, a weekly series that gives young entrepreneurs a platform to openly discuss the unique challenges they face, while receiving targeted guidance and evidence-based practical solutions from experienced industry leaders. The podcast airs every Wednesday at 5:00 PM, and Cuffy-Morris has extended an open invitation to entrepreneurs and community members to join as guests or listeners.

The inaugural showcase featured a full schedule of engaging activities beyond core networking. Guest speakers included successful young entrepreneurs who shared their career journeys and insights with attendees. A highlight of the day was the Young Bosses Pitch Competition, where three emerging founders presented their business concepts to a panel of judges and won cash and in-kind prizes to advance their projects. The event also included a public talent showcase and a creative youth-focused health and safety initiative to support holistic participant well-being.

Organizers have confirmed that the showcase will become a permanent annual event held every World Youth Skills Day, with planning already underway for the 2027 gathering. All participants in the 2026 inaugural event will be honored as charter members of the Studentpreneur movement and receive exclusive green recognition badges, while pink has been announced as the official theme color for next year’s gathering. The launch event also marked the debut of the movement’s official theme song, “Be The Light,” crafted to inspire young people to trust their abilities, embrace their unique skills, nurture strength in mind, body, and spirit, and seize opportunities to improve their own lives and lift up their families.

In closing remarks at the launch, Cuffy-Morris reaffirmed her long-term commitment to youth economic empowerment across the Dominican Republic. She encouraged established skilled professionals to register their profiles on the new MAANZ Skills Website to support emerging talent, and reiterated the open invitation for entrepreneurs to engage with the “Pain to Profits” podcast to share their experiences and access expert guidance.

As the search operation for a missing 19-year-old Portsmouth resident Jerbiah Kaysia Paul stretches into its ninth consecutive day, the teenager’s mother Jacinta Paul has delivered a heartfelt, urgent appeal to members of the public, begging anyone with even the smallest piece of information to come forward to help bring her daughter home safely.

In her public address, Jacinta opened by expressing her profound gratitude to the hundreds of local residents, volunteer search teams, and law enforcement officers who have dedicated time, energy and resources to combing the area for any trace of Kaysia over the past week and a half. She emphasized that the outpouring of community support has been a small source of comfort for her family during this terrifying, uncertain period, but that the lack of updates on her daughter’s whereabouts has left the entire family in overwhelming distress.

Local law enforcement agencies have confirmed that they are continuing to actively process all tips and leads that have been submitted by the public, and have stepped up patrols in areas that Kaysia was known to frequent before she was reported missing. Investigators have not released further details about the circumstances of her disappearance to avoid compromising the ongoing search operation, but have reiterated that any information, no matter how insignificant it may seem to the person holding it, could prove critical to resolving the case.

Community groups across Portsmouth have also organized voluntary search parties, shared missing person flyers across social media platforms, and offered support to the Paul family as they wait for news. Local residents have been encouraged to check their private property, including outbuildings, sheds and vehicles, for any signs of the teenager, and to contact the dedicated police tip line immediately if they spot anything that matches Kaysia’s description.

Over the past decade, artificial intelligence (AI) has reshaped nearly every corner of modern life, from streamlining corporate workflows and academic planning to designing infrastructure and generating creative content. What was once a niche experimental technology is now marketed to the general public as a revolutionary tool that will redefine how people work, learn, and create. While AI has delivered undeniable efficiency gains across sectors including business, education, and law enforcement, its rapid proliferation has also sparked urgent ethical questions, particularly as the technology moves into one of society’s most deeply personal spaces: Christian worship.

The most pressing controversy surrounding AI’s growing role in faith communities centers on the rising trend of pastors using AI to generate full sermons and even original gospel music. A quick online search for “AI sermons” or “AI gospel songs” pulls up dozens of platforms offering ready-made spiritual content for clergy looking to cut down on preparation time. While the authors of this commentary acknowledge AI can serve as a helpful auxiliary tool for church administration, they argue that replacing the traditional sermon-writing process with AI-generated content raises profound spiritual and moral concerns that Christian leaders cannot afford to ignore.

For centuries, preparing a sermon has been a deeply spiritual discipline for pastors: it requires diving deep into biblical text, cross-referencing passages with traditional concordances, and spending extended time in prayer and meditation to seek guidance from the Holy Spirit. Outsourcing this core work to an algorithm, the authors argue, erodes the authentic spiritual connection that gives preaching its power. They note that overreliance on AI mirrors the biblical warning against spiritual slavery, pointing to Galatians 5:1, where the Apostle Paul urges believers to stand firm in the freedom Christ offers, refusing to be yoked to new forms of bondage. In the modern context, the authors frame overreliance on AI as a new form of legalism, where clergy prioritize the convenience of a machine-generated product over reliance on the supernatural guidance of the Holy Spirit.

Widespread acceptance of AI-generated sermons also reflects a growing lukewarmness among many believers and clergy, the commentary argues, echoing the biblical rebuke of the Laodicean church in Revelation 3:15-16, where Jesus condemns believers who are neither hot nor cold in their faith. The authors stress that true followers of Christ are called to spiritual discernment, and the pulpit must remain a space uncompromised by artificial shortcuts to uphold biblical integrity. AI lacks a soul, a personal relationship with God, and the ability to understand the specific spiritual needs of a local congregation, making it incapable of delivering the Spirit-led message that preaching requires.

When pastors outsource the work of sermon preparation to AI, they not only rob themselves of the spiritual growth that comes from wrestling with scripture and prayer — a process the authors compare to building spiritual muscle that atrophies without use — they also risk turning church services into hollow, mechanical rituals disconnected from divine guidance. Deception, the authors note, so often hides behind the veil of convenience and efficiency, two of AI’s biggest selling points. Christian leaders have a responsibility to guard against this infiltration, holding fast to their role as shepherds of truth rather than conduits for shallow, unauthentic teaching. While AI can be used carefully as an auxiliary tool for administrative tasks, the authors warn that ceding core spiritual work to algorithms leaves churches vulnerable to losing the presence of the Holy Spirit entirely, a risk that all believers must take deliberate steps to avoid.