 Hello everyone and welcome to a special edition of Issues and Answers here at the NTN studios Featuring outstanding students of the Sir Arthur Lewis Community College. My name is Natalie Julie Fannes And I thank you for joining us here this today It's a pleasure always for us to be able during the Nobel Laureate Festival to feature our outstanding students at the college Who are able to balance so much and who are able to achieve so much this year the theme for the Nobel Laureate Festival is Celebrating excellence vision 2020 so our main topic will be to hear the students vision for St. Lucia and for youth in particular With me today are two students Daniel De Freitas from the division of art science and general studies and Zanaka Emilia from the division of agriculture and we want to welcome both of them and thank them for being with us Welcome So you are Exemplary students in leadership positions who do so much particularly where youth is concerned I want to give you an opportunity first to tell the nation about yourself. Let's start with Daniel Good day As you have already stated my name is Daniel Taj De Freitas. I am a second-year student of Sir Arthur Lewis Community College. I will be sitting keep for the second time this year. I study Biology chemistry physics and the Caribbean studies It sounds weird that I do so many sciences Especially when people find out that I was the creator of the Nobel Laureate production This year. I'm still happy on how well that it turned out I'm also the vice president of the drama club vice president of the dark students council I'm also on the executive of Spanish club that and of course many other other other clubs But I also one thing I will get to my house is being the general secretary of the grizzly south youth and sports council That sounds like a full plate Daniel And I know Zanaka is no different. Let's hear from you Zanaka. Okay Zanaka Emilia Currently acquiring an associate's degree in general agriculture at the south of his community college yet, too I'm currently the president of the national students council newly elected country representative for the youth climate change activists regional group. I also serve on my divisional council at the division of agriculture Many clubs as Daniel including the Spanish club, which we love daily And also I do work in my community on the baboon youth and sports council. I like so much that you sound like community people and Not only do you serve on your school at your school clubs, but you're also part of your community So tell us a little bit about how you balance all of that with your challenge of completing your studies at the south of Lewis community college, which I know is not Just a walk in the park. It's Daniel As I said, it's definitely not a walk in the park But I think the more time that you spend doing it the easier that it it becomes doing doing it meaning what balancing Yes, all these extracurricular activities. I would say To one who is looking to do the same firstly is just time management Time management is the be all of one schedule if you have one and you should have have one So you're having a schedule helps you map out what you're going to do for the day the week the month And it helps you visualize what you'll spend your time doing so that not only do you have You're able to make time for the things all of the commitments that you have put on your plate But it also allows you to work more efficiently with the time that you have Okay, how do you manage well for me? It's all about prioritizing your time and committing yourself to specific stuff as it relates to school and what we have going on a lot of What we do outside of school is actually related to school. So you find Knowledge filtering from us being in these groups also helps us at school But at the same time you need to sort of balance the two where you Go to school. I mean we miss a lot of school being a part of all these things But at the end of the day, it's all about having a proper schedule a proper planner as to what you're going to do and Actually designating time to specific things that matter So putting the ones that need a lot more work first and then come to the rest later So that's how I go about actually trying to stay in school and balancing out the other stuff Give us a little background into what propelled you into those fields that you're in now particularly with the community service What what pushed you in that particular direction? Well in terms of the community service as they said What propelled me was actually someone else that I work with frequently. She's also a very Heavily involved person in youth development. Her name is Desiree Daisy It was two years ago. I believe when she Asked me knowing the the qualities that I have Be with before While she worked with me and also just being a close friend She realized that the qualities and passions that I possessed would have allowed me to thrive in in youth development, so it was more of a recruitment but It's just that I think a lot of young people I mean including myself has the Passion and the interest to give back to their society because most people think well Some people may think that the only opportunity that they'll get to give back to societies Maybe when they're already working maybe when they're an adult But the truth is that we can already give back and be a part of change From this early age and from this level Thank you, Diane. What about you? Well, I live in Babonu and Although I'm not one to always be on the streets as you may call it. I do a lot of Observations in Babonu and I have realized that a lot of young people spend their time doing nothing and For me any way that I could be a part of something where we could Get to these young people to have them to be involved Include them in stuff that would keep them out of the on the blocks and actually have their mind being Stimulated in something that is positive that would impact our society. I believe that's where it started for me and then Being able to see that also we have students impacted in that same breath It really pushed me to get involved in the student movement and like Daniel I have many friends who encouraged me to continue continue to be a leader in that capacity So that all students are looked after and all young people actually have a voice on maybe half and their concerns can't be heard Just a follow-up. So you told me about your interest in community development. Why did you choose agriculture as your field of study? Well growing up. I really loved My environment everything and my dad specifically used to spend a lot of time with us Well me In the yard doing different stuff and for me it was something where I didn't want to go into business and Science because it wasn't too exciting. I wanted to be more out there with Nature mother nature as you would say it. I wanted to really get involved in Planting stuff and I was so fascinated to see that stuff could actually grow from me planting it So it really stemmed from there and a lot of people usually when they see the brown shirt and not the green pants They would say that I go to dogs, but in Trifon in fact I go to daugery and I really love that I chose that Excellent. Daniel, what about your interest in science? Well, my interest in science started from a very young age I've always been the one to even from for more knowledge as I have from a very young age I believe that knowledge is power. So I was always Interested in knowing how things work Whether it be what what what's in our food or how we get to to to to work What we put on our bodies. I just think that everything stems from somewhere and Science if you look at the science that I do it's the free pure sciences as people may call them biology Physics and chemistry. So it allows me to get in information on essentially how the world works from every standpoint My main focus is biology Because that is what I aspire to what field I aspire to go in into later So my fascination when it comes to when it came to their environment More specifically animals was really what pushed me to continue Working in the scientific fields very good You sound like you have that career path very well mapped out and that for me is something that young people Can have difficulty with but I'm glad that you're thinking of it from such an early age So we have to take a quick break now I ask that you remain with us We've heard about the young people when we come back their views on issues of concern to young people If you are in receipt of an abnormally high bill It is highly possible that you have a leak that leak may not always be visible before you contact wasco Conduct a do-it-yourself test one record your meter reading to do not use water for 30 minutes to one hour Three take another meter reading if the reading changes you have a leak contact a plumber to identify and fix the leak at earliest a message brought to you by the water and sewage company incorporated wasco Welcome back to issues and answers. Thank you for staying with us and if you're just joining us welcome We are here speaking with students of the Sir Arthur Lewis Community College as part of the so the college's activities for the Nobel Laureate Festival and With us are Daniel de Freitas and Sannika Emiliae both very active students on the campus and in their communities And we just heard all about their lives and what they would want to do in the future And now we want to move on a little bit to their passions so Daniel recently was the writer co-writer and director producer of one of our Activities, which is a theatrical production at a student-led and this year the title was God of Earth Daniel tell us about your passion for the arts That despite being a science student and marveling at all of the Scientific-based research and concepts that I've stumbled upon in my 18 years of life I do have a side of me which is so creative and abstract that I just absolutely Need to have an outlet for it and that is exactly where the arts come in In the past when it came to SMC I have been a performer. I have written for Literary night Tau Fest. So having the ability to sing is Where it all really started for for for me people would always tell me that oh you have a nice voice So I practiced and right now I do sing Jen generally unfortunately, I didn't get the opportunity to sing for the production But I just came up that but I'm everyone did get to see my writing skills per producing skills so that in itself is another facet of my creative being is Is what I should say so The arts is really just an an outlet for anyone's Emotions imaginations Anything that you would like to put out here in a media in a medium that people would find fascinating and of course entertaining because at heart I don't feel like I am an entertainer That is where the arts plays a significant role in my life Let's just speak a little bit more about God of Earth and what inspired it because it was so well received and the adults in the audience People like Kendall Hippolett of Donald Dixon Jade King Hippolett was so impressed with the concept and with even how you're Executed tell us a little bit about what inspired God of Earth So God of Earth is inspired by a multitude of things as you could Well, if you've seen by the plea You could see the incorporation of my science based background in terms of the planets Space in in general all of the tidbits and little fine points in the theatrical production Did cater to the scientific side of me? So that was the site the scientific based Inspiration of it, but God of Earth as the name suggests is also heavily influenced by religion and Religion in the sense of How what role religion plays in human societies? How did it come about the different? variations of of of religion and how religion is is a venue of cultural expression so my love for cultural diversity Which is prominent in the Caribbean As well as religion on a whole whether it be from the Western or Eastern Hemisphere all Communated to one together with my scientific background to give you the really a Mishmashed almost kind of concept, which is God of Earth give us a little bit of synopsis for somebody who hadn't seen it Just said a little bit about what the play was about so God of Earth is The premise of it is that The nine the eight planets are in our solar system is are all named after God's except If originally was named after a God whose name is Gaia and that character does appear in the production But it's still the official name of the planet is if which is just it So I thought of what would be the If if were to be named after a Roman God or if there was a Roman God Entitled of what would be that story of that God and how would it intertwine in the bigger picture of Roman mythology? Very very interesting, and I know there are calls for you to do a second showing I hope you all could work on that so that more people can be I hope I know yes Thank you so much for that Zanaka Climate change. I know one of the reasons you miss school is because you attend Conferences on on climate change. Tell us about your involvement and your passion for that. Okay, so I started a Secondary school at Leon. Yes, I Was really motivated by one of my past teachers who recently passed away. Mr. Gabriel and he really encouraged me to Speak on issues as it relates to climate change because he was my bio teacher and During class I would challenge him with a lot of questions as it relates to what's going on with our planet right now and a lot of the issues that we're facing and Due to that I went to a summit in Jamaica and this Summit really pushed me to really speak on issues more and I've been doing a lot of research Because we are part of a small island developing state and I've worked with many key stakeholders such as the Caribbean regional Caribbean agricultural regional research and development Institute caddy and one of the main projects was to Really go out to our farmers and really see what the effects of climate change has been doing to their farms and I must say that we are really in a bit of some problems here in St. Lucia and That in itself has really made me question myself as a young person as to why Don't we have many more young people speaking on climate change issues? I recently went to the United Nations summit in September last year where that was the first youth climate change summit actually hosted by the General Secretary of the UN and We really had a good time hearing different Experiences different solutions as it relates to getting from where we are to a better place for future generations to come and That in itself I really think that with my new position as a country rep for the YCCA that I need to mobilize more young people To really speak on issues and really get involved and know what is actually going on because it's not going to only affect the agriculture aspect of the island or the earth in itself But that will filter down into all of our industries and I think that's something that we need to understand Okay, so We just have a little time left before the break, but what kind of activities have you planned? for youth Before I went to the summit. I actually hosted a forum a lecture with the division of agriculture where I brought in someone to speak on The effects of climate change as it relates to food security because we know that we have a high food Import bill in St. Lucia So I really wanted them to have a feel on what it really is and what does it mean? That we will not be able to Provide food for our country anymore soon if we don't start to look at alternative ways of farming in St. Lucia So I've hosted that and I've been speaking to many other Climate change activists and we're working on some other activities to involve young people Fascinating so proud of those students and the work that you're doing. We are due for yet another break Please stay tuned. There's a lot more to come from Daniel and Yanaka How Excessive agrochemical use additives and genetically modified foods are harmful to health and the environment join the good food Revolution grow buy and consume organic a message from rise St. Lucia and the Ministry of Sustainable Development with funding from the GEF small-grants program Welcome back to issues and answers We are speaking with Daniel and Zanaka to students from the south of Lewis Community College And it really has been an uplifting conversation with them They are really inspiration to young people and we want to continue now. They have spoken about themselves and their passion I want them now to speak to some issues that affect young people And I think given that you at the highest level of Education that we have in St. Lucia our premier tertiary institution I want to talk about education and your vision for education in St. Lucia and for young people Who wants to start? I'm throwing it up this time. I'll start so if I may for education definitely one of the first Visions that I have for St. Lucia's education system is the implementation Or should I say the transition of Sir Arthur Lewis? College to become a full-fledged university. I mean that would be so much easier and So much easier for one for People who want to remain in St. Lucia people to attain a proper degree in whatever field that the the university will provide and it will cut costs on us students having to leave to gain Diplomers and and certificates such as our masters or or or bachelor's so that I think is one of the one of the Visions that should be at the forefront of being brought into fruition in addition to that I would also like to see that the variety of of Courses provided at this Tutorial institution, I would hope to be expanded in the past Sorry has to be expanded in the future in the past. I know that there has been courses which used to be Delivered to to students, but aren't any more. So I would like to see a revitalize every revitalization Of of these courses to be brought back as well as the introduction of theater arts for for for keep For for example I just think that there is so much potential in terms of the Variety of skills and interests that young people have that they want to take seriously and turn into a profession That is sadly being missed out upon Hey in in St Lucia. Okay. Thank you. I totally agree Daniel and another thing is that I Would like to see that we have a more inclusive syllabus in St Lucia Mainly at the secondary schools Because a lot of the time we see that our syllabus sort of caters to the more academic students and a lot of the time our more vocational and Athletic students are sort of left out, but the transition is happening with we're seeing their Turn the grizzly secondary school into a sports facility And I just wish that they would really sort of start to do more in terms of the arts and Even agriculture in itself. So that's what I would like to see with the education system and being a part of the NSC we've begun to a closely with ministers even we had a meeting with the prime minister where we discussed How we could make the education system a more conducive and effective one in St. Lucia for our students So we've been working along with them and I could see that if we continue to discuss these issues And how we could improve education that sooner or later Our education system will be one that would cater to all students and wouldn't be suffering from bridge brain drain Sorry, so that everyone could feel like they have a place here to study in St. Lucia. Okay. Thank you We are getting very close to our independence celebrations Last year there was a lot of festivity around our 40th I think we can see we're adult now at the age of 40 And I know you've been around just for 18 years But for a country that has been that is celebrating 40 years of independence. What for you would you like to see? Stand out as representing St. Lucia as being at the forefront of our development as an independent nation Okay, well When one speaks of independence, I think definitely what comes to mind is Self-efficiency and sufficiency and as Zanaka has stated before one of the main importance for us is Providing food for the nation it is sad to see that our import bill for foods as well as other items It's so high so One thing that I think that needs to be put at the forefront of development For St. Lucia in order to exemplify our independence is to lessen our dependency on other countries in terms of Imports so There's just so much potential. I'll use an example such as And energy generation. I think there has been a discussion for the generation of geofoomal energy using our Volcano for some time now Taking advantage of the Caribbean climate where there is so much sun and so much wind to Generate solar or wind-powered energy So in all I think that there is a lot of talk happening in terms of allow trying to push St. Lucia forward to Investing into those sort of Plans, but I think that what a lot of us would like to see especially young people who are hearing so much about climate change and seen So so much that the world may not be in a position Where we could and enjoy We would just like to see these initiatives brought to the forefront as these are ways to help preserve The earth and these are ways which will ensure our future To be successful and long-lasting Sanika has he has he stolen your fire? He's not like he's included on your area Is there anything else given that you will be in a season anything else as an independent nation that you'd like to see for St. Lucia, and definitely agreeing with Daniel I also think along with that as an independent island. We need to sort of Try to lessen on the unemployment of young people in the country recently young people across the Caribbean actually last week We had a summit in Trinidad where we discussed Economic growth and decent work for young people Not only having just an informal job where you probably go twice a week, but something that could Enable you to get something for yourself Daily, and I think that as an island we need to not only look at trying to create jobs But how as a young person in yourself can you start up something? How could you do something that could actually help other young people? And I think that we need to sort of resort to having these discussions as an island and As young people also Entrepreneurship. Yes, definitely. I think that is so important. I think these are two critical areas for young people Sustainability having a future and being able to provide employment and be self-employed We are celebrating excellence and therefore we celebrate you This has been an excellent discourse I thank you so much for all the work that you put in for being Shining examples for the young people and I thank you for sharing your vision with us And I want to encourage you to continue what you're doing and I know it'll be nothing but success for you So, thank you so much Danielle de Fritches and Zanaka Emilia students of the south of the Lewis community college for being with us today on Issues and answers and thank you so much for joining us here today I hope that you were inspired and that you have hope for the future We end here with the Nobel laureate festival being celebrated by the south of the Lewis community college under the theme Celebrating excellence vision 2020. Thank you so much for joining us