Office of the Campus
Registrar, Jamaica. Monday, October 7, 2019
- The University of the West
Indies (UWI) Open Campus, is pleased to announce the Valedictorian
for its 2019 Presentation of Graduates Ceremony, which will be held
on Saturday, October 12, 2019 at 10:00 a.m. at the St John’s
Pentecostal Ministries
Church in Antigua and
Barbuda.

The
Valedictorian is Ms Novenia
Norisia Isaac, a secretary at the Portsmouth Secondary School.
Novenia completed her Bachelor
of Science degree in Social Work
with First Class Honours.

Novenia,
from the northern community of
Thibaud is a mother of one and also a mentor to many students at the
Portsmouth Secondary School.

Novenia
places high importance on being a positive role model to young people
and encourages them to follow their dreams no matter how off the path
they may appear. “The
most important lesson I learned while pursuing my degree is that in
order to succeed you must never forget what it is that you are trying
to achieve and in doing so, work fervently to achieve that goal,”
she explained when asked about the lessons learned over the four
years of her studies.

She
is driven by the values of honesty, hard work and dedication and
applies these values to everything she undertakes academically,
professionally and personally. Novenia credits her drive
to succeed to the unconditional support she received from her network
of family and friends and her ever-growing faith in God.

“My
best advice for single parents is to ensure that your support network
is solid,” she stated when asked to offer advice to other single
parents who wish to study. “Ensure that there are persons who will
be there to advise and help you during the hard parenting times and
to help you with the child/children when assignments are due and time
is pressing.”

Chosen
by Social Work

“I
like to say that I did not choose Social Work, Social Work chose me,”
Novenia quipped when asked about her choice of degree. “I knew I
wanted to complete my studies in a field that allowed me to give back
to people, to help out those who are oppressed, but I did not know
exactly where I would land in that spectrum. It was only after I
attended an information session with the Open Campus and the speaker
highlighted the Social Work programme that I knew that this was what
I needed to do.”

 As is customary, Novenia will deliver the Valedictory Speech on behalf of her fellow graduates from across the region at Saturday’s graduation ceremony.

About The
UWI

For
the past 70 years The University of the West Indies (The UWI) has
provided service and leadership to the Caribbean region and wider
world. The UWI has evolved from a university college of London in
Jamaica with 33 medical students in 1948 to an internationally
respected, regional university with near 50,000 students and five
campuses: Mona
in Jamaica, St.
Augustine
in Trinidad and Tobago, Cave
Hill
in Barbados, Five Islands in Antigua and Barbuda, and an Open
Campus.
As part of its robust globalization agenda, The UWI has established
partnering centres with universities in North America, Asia, and
Africa such as the State
University of New York (SUNY)-UWI Center for Leadership and
Sustainable Development,
the UWI-China Institute of Information Technology, the University of
Lagos (UNILAG)-UWI Institute of African and Diaspora Studies and the
Institute for Global African Affairs with the University of
Johannesburg (UJ).
The UWI offers over 800 certificate, diploma, undergraduate and
postgraduate degree options in Food & Agriculture, Engineering,
Humanities & Education, Law, Medical Sciences, Science &
Technology, Social Sciences and Sport. 

As
the region’s premier research academy, The UWI’s foremost
objective is driving the growth and development of the regional
economy. Times Higher Education (THE) has ranked The UWI among the
top 1,258 universities in world for 2019, and the 40 best
universities in its Latin America Rankings for 2018. It was the only
Caribbean-based University to make the prestigious lists. For more,
visit www.uwi.edu.

(Please
note that the proper name of the university is The University of the
West Indies, inclusive of the “The”, hence The UWI.)