 Good morning, everyone. I'd like to recognize the occupants of the head table. I'll start with my extreme left. We have a representative from Lusilec, a very important representative. I can't remember his name. Mr. Omari Frederick. And next to him, we have Ms. Anya James, who is the teacher responsible for the program at the school. We have our chairman of the board, Mr. Bousquet, Anthony Bousquet. And we have a very special guest who has taken time off from his schedule in the U.S. to be here with us to launch the robotics program. That's Mr. Tanzi. Welcome, everyone. I see some parents with us. We always love when the parents come with us. Let me recognize Mr. Oogist as well, the vice principal. And of course, me, I'm the principal of the school, Mr. Fontenelle. Young men, welcome as well to the launch of this program. This robotics program is the brainchild of our chairman, Mr. Bousquet. And he has worked assiduously to ensure that we launch this robotics program at St. Mary's College. Now, this is not a new initiative in terms of secondary schools. In fact, I've visited a number of schools in the region, Jamaica, Barbados, and so on. And all those schools have purging robotics programs. And the potential of this program is immense. Mr. Tanzi is an engineer. And he's worked on some very top secret classified programs in the U.S., which I will not mention. And there is no reason why a few of those students sitting here cannot follow in those footsteps. And I don't see why in the near future we cannot be reading the headlines over Samirian working at NASA or at the Kennedy Space Station. Sky's the limit. At St. Mary's College, sky's the limit. So with those brief remarks, I would just like to welcome everyone. I'd like to thank Lucillek for the sponsorship of this program. I'd like to thank Mr. Tanzi for gracing us with his presence and also for training the trainers who will be impacting this program on our young men. I'd like to thank Ms. James for enthusiasm. We have some very enthusiastic teachers here who I'm sure will run with this program. And of course, the Chairman of the Board, Mr. Buske, who is also extremely enthusiastic about this robotics program. So without further ado, I'd like to welcome everyone and let's enjoy this opening ceremony. Thank you. Good morning, everyone. And thank you for coming in at such an early hour. I notice you're still on holidays, technically, young men, but get accustomed to it. That's what SMC is about, some hard work. Just when this opening ceremony is to be very brief because we need to get down to the brass tacks of it all in terms of educating our young men. But I think it's important for us to outline how we got here and the purpose for this program. So at the White House, the President of the United States was impressed when he saw very young high school students demonstrating robots that they had built at their school. So he used the opportunity to announce training of 100,000 teachers in the areas of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, STEM. And he also announced that public-private partnerships had already garnered $700 million. Now, this event did not occur last week, last month, or even last year. It occurred 13 years ago when President Obama was in the White House. I recount this story to ask one question, to demonstrate one thing. The question is, are we preparing our kids for the new economy? And to demonstrate that we are lagging the rest of the world. And having said that, let's not make any mistake and think that we can do nothing. We may lack monetary resources, but we do have an abundance of the most important resource, young, bright, eager minds. That's why you are here today. A cross-section of our students is here today, not just a cross-section of the bright students at St. Mary's College, but a cross-section of St. Lucia. Because we do have bright people in many of our schools. But you have St. Mary's and opportunity here. We may lack funds, but we do not lack teachers with the brains and drive to propel our students forward. And we honor the principal, we honor the teachers who are engaged in this program. And we honor you, Ms. James, who has spent the summer going through the curriculum. And we, I must say, believe you me, she deserves a round of applause. We may lack funds, but we are not wanting in friends like Carnegie Mellon University and Professor Lotanzi. And his great-wife Karen, his great-wife Karen, who will give their time and have given their time and talent to this endeavor. We honor you today as we remember that you are here despite your hometown being impacted by Hurricane Italia. And so we thank you for being here, and we honor you today. We may lack funds, but we are not penniless. The PPP, President Obama spoke about in 2010, facilitated one such relationship, facilitated this program. I take this opportunity to thank Lusilec for the $10,366 that they donated to this program. We honor and we thank you. I also thank the anonymous donor who, when I approached you in the U.S. and asked for $3,000 E.C., you said, okay, let me look into this. And you trusted me and you gave me $3,000 U.S. $8,000 E.C. To Lusilec and to the anonymous donor, you may know me, but still the books are open to you to see how this money was spent. Dover Eye, no Prover Eye. Trust, but verify. Popularized by Ronald Reagan, but an old Russian proverb, I know Russian isn't popular today, but when their civilization very early, they came up with this proverb. So we thank you and we appreciate you. Young men, men in training, integrity counts for a lot. You have a tremendous opportunity through this program to get a head start in mathematics, physics, electronics, programming. Embrace it, seize it, prepare yourselves for the new economy, but be ensured that you must also be men of integrity. Men of integrity, propelling solution forward through your education and through the gifts you have been given. Be men of service. Thank you. Thank you very much, Mr. Buske. And our board chairman I can assure you is at the engine room of St. Mary's College. Very involved, very passionate, and I think SMC is a better place with Mr. Buske as our chairman. I'm sure with his speech you can understand that type of enthusiasm that he's bringing forward to SMC. Thank you very much, Mr. Buske. You did not thank yourself. I'd like to invite Mr. Lettanzi to give a few remarks on his tinte and exactly what we were doing at SMC with the robotics program. Thank you very much for having me here. My wife here. It's really an honor to be here. I learned a lot about the college. I am so impressed. So many talented people came out of the school, so there's got to be a lot of talented people in the room, I'm sure. A little about myself. I've been an engineer for 40 years, just about 40 years, so I'm an old guy. I have worked on lots of really cool stuff though. I've been very blessed in my career. I've worked on aerospace systems. I've worked on automotive systems. I've worked on robotics appliances, so a lot of appliances like refrigerators, washing machines, you name it. They've got computers in them. They've got software in them, right? I've worked on networking and comms. I work in the startup for a few years in the startup, and I am currently a practicing engineer. So I work at a spin out from a university in Florida, University of South Florida right now, where I'm the CTO, Chief Technology Officer for our work there. It's the Institute of Flight Engineering, so we do a lot of work. A lot of it is in the military domain, but there's software everywhere. There's hardware and so forth everywhere. So one of the things I got to do in my career that was awesome was I got to teach. So while I did all this, I pretty much taught throughout my career as adjunct or as full-time faculty and full-time faculty and consulting. So one of the coolest things about teaching is mentoring, right? I like to tell people, you know, people say things, how do you know that? And I'm like, I'm not a genius. I am far from a genius. I've just made every mistake that you can make. So, and I just don't want to make them again. So I remember, I learned. And that's why I think it's so important when you teach people, young people, STEM, when you teach them electronics, when you teach them robotics, they got to use their hands. They got to make some mistakes. So to those ends, I met Mr. Biscay through Mutual Friend. And he mentioned to me, hey, how would you like to help us start a program in robotics for young guys? I was like, yeah. So I think you are a good salesman, by the way. And we, you know, did some brainstorming. I worked with Ms. James over the summer. And, you know, she helped me out because quite honestly, while I've taught a lot, I've never taught, you know, young guys like you, and I'm looking forward to learning more about that. I'm also learning forward to seeing how you learn. And we're putting together a lot of labs. We've worked yesterday. We built some bots. We looked at some software. And what you guys are going to be working on is something like this. You're going to be building something like this. And what you're going to have when you show up on the first day as a box of parts and pieces, you're not even going to have the little plastic piece on here. So what is this? Well, it's a robot. What's in a robot and why should you study robotics? Robotics is one of the most challenging engineering fields that you can get into. Why? Because it involves computers. It involves the software that's in there that makes it do things. It involves electronics. It involves sensors. And it involves mechatronics. You've got to have some mechanics who can put things together, right? So it involves all of that. And it's not going to be easy. You're going to be challenged, but I'm sure that you guys can rise to the challenge. And every time you make a mistake, you think, well, I just learned something, right? So you'll have an opportunity to learn more. So the last thing I want to say is that two things. One is I always like to say that it's great to mentor engineers because you never know when there's going to be an Elon Musk in the room. I don't think there's any Elon Musk in this room. I think there's many, right? And this is how you get started and hopefully you're inspired in some way to take up engineering. It's been a fantastic career for me. I couldn't think of doing anything else. It's very exciting. I also want to thank Ms. James for helping me through this and working together. It's been awesome. And thank you, Anthony, for the opportunity. And that's it. Thank you very much, Professor Lethanzi. I'd just like to make the point that we deliberately selected students from one and from two. And that was not by accident. It was deliberate because we want them to be in the program for longevity. So the from twos have at least four years. The from ones have five years to engage in that robotics program. And please note, our sponsors as well, that we are looking forward to, you know, continued support for the longevity of the program. And as Mr. Lethanzi said, I'm certain that coming out of this program, that we will have some engineers being developed from this robotics program. And that is really the aim. You know, I always say that at St. Mary's, we want to develop young men who will contribute positively to society. And, you know, when you have people who can become engineers, who can build stuff, you know, build appliances, maybe they may not go into robotics, but other fields of engineering. And while they go into the robotics field, as you saw this robot there, there are so many different mechanics involved, so many different aspects of engineering that they can get involved in. So I think this program is well set at St. Mary's. I'd like to invite our sponsor to come and give a few remarks on behalf of the select. Good morning. Permit me first before I begin to segment our audience into two groups. One being important people, and the other being very important people. So to our important people, I say good morning to our principal, Mr. Fontenelle, to our vice-principal, I'm trying to remember all the names, Ms. Uggist, to our chairman, Mr. Buske, to our guest of one, of course, Professor Lethanzi, we pronounce the name correctly. And of course, our staff physics teacher, Ms. Ania James, to the faculty, to the parents, to all of our countries. And I see my friend from Optronics in the back, Mr. Patrick, hello. These are the important people, to the very important people in the room. As a young man, who I'm looking at right now in form one and form two, will be taking up this program. If I seem very excited this morning, it's for a good reason because it's a reason to celebrate at this point in time. And for me personally, it's a reason to celebrate twofold. One, as a company, we get to be a part of this fantastic movement that will allow us to find modern day solutions to the challenges that we are facing as a nation, as a region, and globally. Secondly, on a personal level for me, science and technology is at my core. I am what I call a modern day nerd. I have represented solutions on a number of occasions in the area of science and the area of technology is a very special part of my life. And as a company, Lucelek, we were built on a cornerstone of innovation, built on science and technology. So it's a natural fit for us to support the work of the college, support the work of our friends at Optronics who are doing major things on a global front. For those of you who pay attention to social media, you'll also see Optronics featured prominently shaking hands with Mia Motley of Barbados, another proud movement, another great movement. To our young men, just a couple of messages. Someone mentioned service in the earlier comments. Service is the rent that we pay for life. And we always remember everything that you do, as was said by your principal or your chairman, sorry, act with integrity. You are the future leaders. You are the ones who will be finding the solutions to the challenges that we face as a nation and we will face in the future. Explore your interests, and of course, more importantly, when you are equipped with the skills over the next few years, use those skillsets to mentor and encourage others to follow in the path. So right now, you are very important people because you are the future, and you are the ones who are going to blaze the way for us for a better future. So with those few words, I will say as well that Lusilec remains committed to supporting this initiative. We must extend Kudos to the St. Mary's College for this critical and groundbreaking initiative. It was said a few years ago in an interview that the Caribbean is playing catch-up with respect to robotics and technology, but I would offer a different perspective on that. It's never too late. And I truly suspect that the timing is just right because based on the faces of the gentleman in this room, I know that the future of robotics is in fantastic hands. So on behalf of Lusilec, thank you for the opportunity to partner. I will look forward to further discussions on funding. And when we do fund, we look forward to verifying how those funds are spent. So thank you very much on behalf of Lusilec. Thank you very much. Some very comforting words from our sponsor. And last but definitely not least, the individual who is really at the heart of this program because when Mr. Lethanzi leaves us at the end of this week, the responsibility of ensuring that this program will lie squarely on the shoulders of Ms. Anya James with support from the school's administration. So she is at the heart of this program. And I would like to invite Ms. James to give us a few words and an overview of the robotics program as it will be at St. Mary's College. Good morning everyone. So I wasn't nervous to speak, but right now I am after learning that I have this much responsibility. I would like to first of all thank everyone, especially the students for the interest, the interest in the program. I have received many emails from parents and students. One miss, I can't get into the classroom miss. I didn't receive an email miss. That shows the enthusiasm and I hope that enthusiasm stays throughout. I would also like to thank Mr. Bosque for having the idea but not only having the dream but making it a reality. Because many of us we dream, but the extra work to make it a reality, it's difficult and I'm sure he can tell you that, but he got it done and I appreciate that Mr. Bosque. Thank you very much. And I would like to thank Mr. Fontenelle for his support because without him of course, if he said no it wouldn't happen. So thank you very much for that Mr. Fontenelle and thank you Lucille. Thank you for working with us. And of course a very special thank you to Mr. Tony Latanzi because without him I did not have any idea how we would have started it. He was able to do it from scratch and actually made something very formal for me to follow even the little bits I did not know because my special, my training is in electronics, not robotics. So he was able to put all the pieces together for me so I could make a program for the students that they would enjoy, you would understand also that I would understand. And thank you to Mr. Javatis and Mr. Evans. They also will be helping in training our young ones. So they would not mention but can you stand up and can we give them a round of applause for help for being in the training. So Mr. Javatis and Mr. Evans. For those who don't know me, I know the students I haven't taught many of the students so I am Ms. James, I'm the physics teacher here and before I was in science fair I was very very very strong in science fair and St. Mary's College was known in the science activities rally at and we dominated the science field in St. Lucia and I would like us to have that, start us back dominating the science field in St. Lucia. We have one of our science royalty at the back there to the round, Mr. Keegan Patrick. I worked with him. Keegan was my student. He took part in many science fair competitions and won. He actually won the surgical visionaries challenge which is something that lasted three years and St. Mary's College won every single year there was a surgical visionaries challenge. We were undefeated in that. So that's the legacy I want you boys to know and that is what I want you all to keep that we St. Mary's College will be those students that will be dominating the science field in St. Lucia eventually the Caribbean. Okay so how the program will be once a week we will meet after school for two hours you will be working in teams so that is one of the skills that this program will also be fostering teamwork how do we work together for us to build this robot to follow our commands and to do what we wanted to do so that is another skill that you will be learning while doing this program. So we will have competitions at the end of every term so you are not just building a robot saying you build a robot but your robot will be doing something and based on your code we will see who has built the better robot so you will have competitions okay so it is a learning process but you're not just learning for learning sake we're going to have fun doing it as well right because we all love a little competition and then that will encourage us for us to do well hopefully you will be doing this robotics camp until you graduate and not only will you be competing amongst yourself hopefully you will get the opportunity to also compete nationally as well as regionally and eventually internationally that is our goal for this program and with that we are going to end this program unless anybody has anything else to say I will bring you back to our principal and thank you again and I look forward to working with you throughout the year Thank you very much Ms. James she spoke of the enthusiasm of the students but I'm sure from what she's saying you can see that she herself exudes that level of enthusiasm and added to that you can expect and I'm putting this out there at upcoming science fairs you can expect to see SMC putting out some robots and competing on that level which would be a different level from what we normally see at science fair and in terms of the curriculum what we intend to do at SMC is gradually she spoke of after school two hours after school one day a week what we are looking to do is gradually integrated into the formal curriculum during our 830 to 230 classes so in the very near future as we work with the robotics you will find that those students who will be specializing in that field will actually be doing it within the class time and they will continue after school so we will be making time for that robotics program and I'm certain that it will flourish with these words I would like to thank everyone for being present this morning young men your morning has just started because you will get an opportunity as the day goes on to interact directly with Mr.Latanzi and get introduced to the robotics program thank you everyone our invited guests our parents I know we have some parents there we have some board members there our sponsors we will select in particular and the media houses I know GIS is there I see DBS thank you very much for your presence have a pleasant day everyone