Chinese Ambassador to Barbados, Wang Ke (left) presents the admission letter to Jonathan Cumberbatch.
Chinese Ambassador to Barbados, Wang Ke (left) presents the admission letter to Moji-Sola Cherry.
Eight of the ten scholarship winners with the Minister of Education, Science, Technology and Innovation, Ronald Jones; the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Senator Maxine McClean; and the Chinese Ambassador to Barbados, Wang Ke and other officials from both Ministries.
The opportunity to study in a country that is culturally different from Barbados presents you with an opportunity to expand your horizons.
So states the Minister of Education, Science, Technology and Innovation, Ronald Jones, who delivered remarks at the Delivery Ceremony of the Admission Letters for the Beneficiaries of the 2017/2018 Chinese Government Scholarships on Tuesday night at the Chinese Embassy.
“You have such a great opportunity to extend your wings, to expand your horizons. This opportunity to study in the People’s Republic of China is a great one and you are going to great universities as explained by the Ambassador (Wang Ke). You will be immersed into an environment that will strengthen you; give you the opportunity to meet so many people from across the world.”
Jones said that as the young people of this generation, they are considered global citizens because of the opportunities that are now being presented to them to study in even more diverse and far off places - chances that were not available to generations such as his and the ones before his.
“That is why you who are 21st century children, all of you are – you know – global citizens, you really are. Your space has been widened so phenomenally as compared to my space or the space of Minister McClean, or the spaces of our two PSs here or of the Deputy PS. Our spaces were a little more narrow and if you go back a few years before us, that space was really the front yard or the back yard. Today, that space is the world and in a country where there is so much great culture, culture embedded over time, thousands of years – we’re still an emerging, cultural space of those who have been transplanted into this 166 square mile rock, that we too are evolving with our own unique characteristics as a people.”
Therefore, in addition to expanding their horizons, they also get an opportunity to craft their own stories of their life experiences that are different and diverse from other Barbadians.
“Therefore interfacing and interacting as we are with Chinese people and Bajan people, is really good for the story of the world. We have all become writers in our own way. They are always on time, so you have to adjust to that cultural space, you have to adjust to the characteristics of the country and its people.”
The Minister of Education urged them to take full advantage of the opportunity to develop skills that will be advantageous to themselves, their families and their country.
“I am glad to see you all going off, young as you are, but it is at this stage of youth that you are able to pull on board, pull on shore so many different experiences and to hone your own talents to contribute to yourselves, your family and your country. Ultimately, that has to be the process.”