As we prepare to stage Jamaica Diaspora Day Live Online, and celebrate the Diaspora’s contribution to Jamaica and as I also transition out of my role as chair of the Jamaica Education Taskforce (JDETF) into Chairman of Jamaica Diaspora Taskforce Action Network (JDTAN), I have cause to reflect on the work of the Jamaica Diaspora Education Taskforce (JDETF) over the last 7 years and the numerous organizations and partners that have made consistent contributions to the Education Sector in Jamaica.
I would certainly be remiss if I did not give credit where credit was due and identify the people and organizations that catapulted the Jamaica Diaspora Education Task Force into the success it achieved over the past seven years. The JDETF has always worked collectively with stakeholders to develop strategic educational solutions, build capacity, and help our country meet the requirements of Vision 2030. So many organizations, agencies, businesses, government ministries, colleges and universities, and individuals have left their imprints. I want to thank each of them because they too are champions of the cause for Jamaica.
Leading JDETF has been my greatest pleasure and the best learning platform for me over my life. The following are people and organizations that helped to transform it from a simple idea to a network.
Epitome of service and love of country
I met Lesleyann seven years ago, just after the birth of the JDETF. It didn’t take long to convince her about the path of the JDETF. Lesleyann truly believes that education is the only vehicle through which we can strengthen our country. As a result, she spends an enormous amount of her time empowering and uplifting our youth and institutions through her work.
Lesleyann Samuel has been the President of UJAA for many years, and through it all I have watched her, in this role, provide water storage tanks for schools across the island, enrich and empower Operation Restoration School in Trench Town, and worked with so many basic schools across the island. She truly put students first.
Although Lesleyann only recently accepted Vice Chair of the JDETF, She has been a huge transformative force behind JDETF’s flagship project Education Summit and the EXCEED program with Loma Linda and La Sierra Universities. Her relationship with the Jamaica Teachers’ Association Ministry of Education, Lasco Chin Foundation (LCF) other foundations, and other stakeholders have helped to further deepen collaborations on projects deemed necessary in delivering valuable initiatives to Jamaica.
Lesleyann has created collaborative relationships between the five major Jamaican umbrella alumni associations across the world, a feat that has not be accomplished before. This collaboration was formalized recently as she spearheaded the COVID Care Package Project with LCF and all these umbrella organizations.
Lesleyann is the epitome service to Jamaica and her skills in collaboration have transformed, not just UJAA, but the JDETF.
Champion of Loyalty to the cause
Upon the first invitation to join the first meeting one great Sunday afternoon on August 11, 2013, and after listening to the plans ahead during the meeting, without knowing me Karlene Largie must have had an epiphany. She announced at the end of the meeting ”Leo, I hear you and I am giving you my full support. As of today, there is nothing you can do to keep me away from this cause.”
To date, through thick and thin, Karlene Largie has seen many task force members come and go. However, she has remained with me as the only person who are founders of the JDETF. This is important as it demonstrates her commitment, not to me, but the instrument that she thought from day one would be a game-changer for initiatives that will benefit education; and as she always says, ”Help our little ones.”
Karlene has been the face of communication between the JDETF, the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, MInistry of Education Youth and Information, Early Childhood Commission, Jamaica Teachers’ Association, our corporate partners, and many other stakeholders. She is affectionately known to us as Lady Largie (coined by Dr. Mark Nicely).
Karlene never missed any event hosted by the JDETF and served in several capacities including Chair of the Education Summit and on several task force committees. The JDETF got the best of Lady Largie and she continues to serve as one of the important leaders of the JDTAN.
Karlene Largie is a dedicated source of inspiration among us and highly respect for her undying love for children and her country. Karlene is the ultimate champion of loyalty to education and especially to out little ones.
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JTA the pride of pedagogical advancements
Within two months of the first meeting of the JDETF in 2013 and hundreds of letters written by Miss Karlene Largie on my behalf to various stakeholders requesting audience, the JDETF responded to a call from the then President Dr. Mark Nicely. Before long the JTA and the JDETF started a partnership that has lasted for almost seven years.
Dr. Nicely jumped in,dugged in from the start and encouraged our first face to face meeting in California which started the relationship with EXCEED, Loma Linda, and La Sierra Universities: a six year relationship that has provided Professional Development and training for over four hundred teachers on how to use tablets for STEM in the classroom.
The relationship with the JTA spans seven years. Six presidents, including Mark Nicely, Doran Dixon, Howard Isaacs, Georgia Waugh Richards, Garth Anderson and Owen Speid. The JTA has played an impactful role in the transformative advancements for teachers and the JDETF. The organization has shown its deep love, respect, and honor for its member teachers and has supported their development through the annual JDTEF’s annual free professional development sessions either virtually on locations and through tours to various schools and colleges in the United States.
The JTA has played an impactful role in the transformative advancements for teachers and the JDETF. The organization has shown its deep love, respect, and honor for its member teachers and has supported their development through the annual JDTEF’s annual free professional development sessions either virtually on locations and through tours to various schools and colleges in the United States.
We (the JDETF) are proud to call the JTA a friend but most importantly, wish to celebrate the pride of pedagogical advancements for its teachers.
We look forward to more fruitful enriching experiences with this partnership so that our teachers and students alike will continue the transformational growth for the future our our beloved country.
Beacon dedication to Jamaica and it’s teachers
In the 2013 Diaspora Conference in Montego Bay, Jamaica I made a commitment to education. It is at this conference that I inadvertently bumped into Jamaican Dr. Hansel Fletcher, Assistant Dean, Graduate Student Affairs, Professor and Vice-Chair, Department of Basic Sciences at Loma Linda University in California, who told me he liked what I said about the future of education and the commitment. He said he wanted to help. He then became significantly instrumental in propelling my plans.
At the JDETF’s first strategic meeting with the JTA, Dr. Hansel Fletcher introduced the team to our second partner Loma Linda University. Dr. Douglas Havens, Director of Excellence in STEM Experiential Education (EXSEED) is an innovative and collaborative program designed to enhance Integrated Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) was immediately brought in. Seven years and over four hundred alumni teachers later, the relationship is stronger than ever.
Unfortunately, COVID-19 intercepted our robust plans to host the 2020 Advancement in Education Summit, which would be the fifth in the series, in California on both the Loma Linda and La Sierra University campuses. There, both teachers and police officers were in line to received more than thirty workshops in Professional Development and Training.
Dr. Hansel Fletcher, a passionate and dedicated Jamaican, made this relationship possible and he continues to create opportunities for Jamaican teachers and high school students seeking advanced degrees.
Dr. Hansel Fletchers and Dr. Douglas Havens are beacons of dedication to the teaching and learning sector, and Jamaica will continue to do well with them both in our corner.
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The heart of a true philanthropist
It was a little more than three years ago, at the 2017 Diaspora Conference that I first learned about Professor Rosalea Hamilton. She was hired by Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade to coordinate the Diaspora Day of Service (DDOS) activities. That year the Jamaica Diaspora Education Task Force led twenty six DDOS activities, mostly in Kingston.
During the planning of DDOS the task force worked closely with Prof (as we all affectionately called her) and her team to roll out activities at Mico University, Excelsior Community, and Browns Town community, and Sam Sharpe Teachers Colleges.
By the end of these multiple activities Prof had invited members of the JDETF to help her launch the Drums For Life (DFL) Project for youth in Salt Spring. It was during all these activities that the JDETF realized she was a special person who cares about all human beings and willingly goes the extra mile to show she cares.
Prof was in th middle of an island wide USAID sponsored project, but found time to to engage us and develop a relationship that has grown leaps and bounds.
Since Fi Wi Jamaica and DFL Professor Hamilton accepted the role as CEO of The Lasco Chin Foundation, where she has broadened her collaborative efforts with the JDTAN and the JDETF.
Here are other projects on which the JDTEF has collaborated with Professor Hamilton: School Support Program in Mountain View communities; various Alumni events in Fort Lauderdale, launches of LCF in Jamaica and Fort Lauderdale; CGI Puerto Rico, CTTP, PNT, JDETF Education Summit for teachers in Florida, DDOS 2019 and more.
Currently, Prof is working with JDTAN, UJAA, and other Jamaica and Diaspora Groups championing the delivery of COVID Care Packages to the needy in Jamaica.
I can not tell you how many times Prof has joined our calls and virtual panels to offer insight, support, guidance and advise. She has been there every time we have called and she responds with grace and her strong sense of duty and patriotism: all because she believes she can make a difference in someone’s life.
The JDETF is stronger and much more transformational with the help of Professor Hamilton. The JDTAN and the JDETF is proud to be associated with Lasco Chin Foundation and especially with the work of Professor Rosalea Hamilton.
Thanks, Prof. Looking forward to more of this very progressive and fruitful relationship.