 Hi, my name is Amani Mathre and I was one of St. Lucia's Island Scholars for the year 2013. With full support from the government of St. Lucia, I was able to pursue my undergraduate degree in 2015. I studied media and international development at the University of East Anglia in the United Kingdom. Following the successful completion of my degree, I returned home to St. Lucia in 2018 and I began a career as a journalist at one of the leading media houses in St. Lucia. I was in that role for three years and it was one of the most rewarding experiences I've ever had. A lot of networking, a lot of new opportunities, lifelong skills that I'm very, very grateful for. As it stands, I recently resigned from the media and I'm currently working as a freelancer. I have different roles in various areas including communications, news reporting and creative writing. I am currently working on what I hope will become my first published book and I'm also preparing to pursue my master's degree once more in the United Kingdom, hopefully in the year 2022. I believe I gave back to St. Lucia in a significant way during my recent stint as a journalist. It put me in a position to be able to lift many marginalized voices and bring attention to some serious social issues. I was fortunate to be in a position to help many people who needed charity, who needed donations but more significantly, I think I also helped to raise the political consciousness of many young people. Through my work as a journalist, I would like to believe that I helped people recognize the importance of transparency, accountability and also being very much aware of the political processes in your own country. As we celebrate 43 years of independence, I want to say to all St. Lucia's to remember that we are very much capable. We may not be the largest country on a map, a physical map but we've always made it clear that we can carve out a space for ourselves on the global stage. It makes me so proud every time I see our athletes, musicians, professionals, our innovators, our creatives being celebrated on the global stage and I hope that in the future we all continue to get the resources we need and to make the right connections to be able to show the world what St. Lucia has to offer. Happy independence. My name is Sanov Nick Destang, I'm the Executive Director of Bay Gardens Resorts. So I am very fortunate and eternally grateful recipient of the 1999 Ireland Scholarship from the Government of St. Lucia. I studied at Sir Arthur Lewis mixture of subjects. I was always known as a science and math person. So when I finally decided to study business as my first degree, I think it surprised a lot of people because a lot of people are aware that both of my sisters including the 1987 Ireland scholar Dr. Tanya Destang-Boberan went into the medical field. But to be honest with you, medicine never really interested me as a profession, neither did engineering. All I knew at the time in the late 1990s was that I really love math and that I really hated accounting which was very ironic given my later career choices and that I was really enthralled with the happenings of the financial market. I was really grateful for the support that I got at that time from my friends, my family, my classmates who included my wife, girlfriend at the time, Juliana, she and all my classmates really encouraged me to really work towards my goals and to work hard and to also consider Canada as a potential choice for schooling, something that I've never looked at before. But getting the Ireland scholarship really opened up a lot of opportunities for me because at the time finance was not offered at the University of the West Indies and I basically had to go out of the Caribbean to really study it. And the school that I chose was and still is ranked as one of the top business programmes in the world and very known for finance of course but also very well known for diversity and corporate social responsibility which would become very important to me later on in life. It was a great experience for these four years and graduation was really a proud day for all of us. At some point in graduation they announced that I was the person who had received the highest grade point average from that faculty and I don't think anyone remembered that to be honest with you. I think all they remembered was those flags and the fact that there was someone from this country called St. Lucia. Many of them I had never heard of or seen the flag. So after eight years in Canada both my wife and I, she's also a chartered accountant, decided to move back to St. Lucia in 2008 and since then I've been the Executive Director of Bay Gardens Resorts. I think a lot of people are aware that my parents Joyce and Desmond Desang founded the business back in 1994 and they really figuratively and literally shattered every single glass ceiling and debunked every stereotype of what hotel ownership and management is supposed to be. As we get to St. Lucia's 43rd year of independence one of the things I'm really looking forward to is people understanding how interdependent we are as a people. If there's one thing I believe the pandemic has taught us is that we really can't do it without each other. The theme for Independence 2022 literally speaks towards moving forward together and it really is going to take all of us, public sector, private sector, entertainment, tourism, agriculture, manufacturing, education, healthcare to really work together towards moving St. Lucia forward. So this independence, I just want to say happy independence St. Lucia and let's move forward together as a country. My name is Shaqil Felice. I'm currently a civil engineer at the Ministry of Infrastructure. I was already at the Island School in 2017 and I studied at Stafford Construction Engineering from 2012 to 2014. I studied civil engineering at the University of the West in this St. Augustine in Trinidad. I'm employed at the Ministry of Infrastructure as a civil engineer. I work on a number of road projects. Well, as a civil engineer, I'm primarily involved in the physical development of a country. So based on some of the projects, I would turn it as immensely benefited some of the communities and residents in some of the areas. Among one of the projects I would turn was a pedestrian bridge in Corrin where the previous Corrin bridge was very narrow and only allowed one vehicle to pass at a time because of the sidewalks affixed to the bridge. So the scope of works involved demolishing those sidewalks, constructing a new suspended sidewalk over the river. And this allowed two vehicles to pass at the same time and also allowed safety for pedestrians crossing. Some other projects I would turn were the Larry Tread Road, Larger Road, Plateau Road, Vigio Road and the Union Garnier-Marise Road. These improved safety for both pedestrians and road commuters in terms of sidewalks, road widening, also proper drainage infrastructure. Improved well-reduced vulnerability to flooding, especially in flood prone areas, retaining well-reduced landslides, landslipage in those areas. Also, road projects also provide employment and also increased value of properties in that area as well. Also, give accessibility to residential homes and for emergency vehicles to access those people. I'm also involved in disaster response, like after Rikin Elsa. We went out to assess damage, assessment and engaging contractors to clay fallen trees and landslides. So, my other future plans to give back is probably to open up an engineering firm to hire technical professionals like myself and also probably be a mentor to young students. Probably open a YouTube, satire YouTube to give crash courses for basic maths courses and other engineering subjects. Oh, I'm really grateful for that Island Scholarship in terms of financial especially. It put me in a position where... Well, now I have no debt to pay back. As the first one goes, school is very expensive, I find. It's very difficult to get opportunities like that. Either you have to do really well or you have to have no people to get those opportunities. So, I'm really grateful for that opportunity. My message to Saint Lucien? Well, as a civil engineer, you know, I contribute mainly to physical development but I stand by Sir Arthur Lewis and his argument that the cure for poverty is not money but knowledge so I empower all Lucien's to empower themselves with knowledge so that we as a people can... You know, the human resource is the most important resource in a nation. So, if we as a people could educate ourselves and come together, I sure we can not rely on the outside nations and become more independent. That's my message to Saint Lucien. Hello Saint Lucia and happy 42nd Independence to us. My name is Shanaya Joseph and I am one of two 2017 Island Scholars. So, in 2017, I embarked on a journey to pursue a Bachelor of Science in Economics and Finance from the University of the West Indies, Cable Campus. And in 2020, I graduated with first-class owners. Easily one of the best times of my life, I got to go to school without having to worry about finances and so I could have just focused on my academics and extracurricular activities. So, I am eternally grateful to the Government of Saint Lucia for giving me that head start and I am determined to pay forward and to contribute to the development of Saint Lucia. Right now, I work at an international bank right here in Saint Lucia as an investment analyst. So, on a day-to-day basis, I ensure that the bank can meet its short-term liquidity needs. I also research and recommend different assets that we can invest in as well. Having studied finance and working in this field now, I have a master of knowledge on investing and on personal finance that I try to share with other people. And that is one of the primary ways that I give back to Saint Lucia. I am a financial literacy advocate. I run a blog where I talk about inflation, taxes, personal finance and just why is financial decision-making investing? Just so Saint Lucia can become a bit more financially savvy, especially on people who are some of the most crucial years of our life, I'm still learning myself, I'm still learning about taxes, mortgages and how those things work. So when I learn something, I try to share that as well. My goal really is to just educate Saint Lucia to spread awareness and to help Saint Lucia better understand the financial markets, the economy and what's going on around them and how that impacts their finances. In the future, I would like to take my contribution a step further by branching out into sustainable finance. So for those of you who don't know, sustainable finance is basically channeling funding to those industries which make a positive impact, whether it's on the environment, on the society, just funding businesses and entities that are making a positive impact. As you know, no project, no entity, no business can survive without financing and so finance is one of those key avenues that can really help us to achieve our sustainability goals. And this is really important to us as a small island developing state. We don't contribute much to climate change but we are on the front lines when it comes to the effects of it. So I think that it's crucial that we have people who are trained in sustainable finance here in Saint Lucia to help with the planning and the implementation of these projects that can help us become better prepared for any climate change events that may happen. When it comes to what I have to say to Saint Lucia and this independence day, I have two bits of advice. The first bit of advice is really simple. Two words, say yes. When an opportunity comes your way, you might feel like you're not a hundred percent ready, you might feel like you're scared, you might be uncertain, but don't let that hold you back. And if you don't know how exactly to go about doing whatever you're asked to do, you can always, when everybody is on a learning curve, you're no different and I promise you, you are going to be okay. My second bit of advice to you Saint Lucia is to be loud and be proud about your accomplishments. You want to let people know what you're capable of. Saint Lucia is full of talent, we are brilliant people and there is no reason to hide that it's something that we should be proud of. So get your accomplishments out there, let people know what you're capable of and just attract these opportunities to yourself. And when they come, bring them to my first piece of advice and say yes. Once again, happy independence my fellow Saint Lucians and as we celebrate our 43rd year of independence, let us remember this year's theme, to volunteer, celebrating our people. I thank you. My name is Gillem Raymond and I'm one of Saint Lucia's National Island Scholars for the year 2018. Being an island scholar has blessed me with the opportunity to fill them academic pursuits at Dalhousie University where I'm currently a fourth year mechanical engineering student. I continue to excel academically as I've recognized as one of Dalhousie's sextant scholars in the year 2020. The sextant scholar award is given to students of the Faculty of Engineering that has demonstrated exceptional academic performances for the last academic year. In addition to academics, in 2020, I joined the executive board of the Dalhousie Caribbean Connections, DCC, as the vice president. The DCC seeks to help Caribbean students have a more comfortable and wholesome experience throughout their undergraduate studies at university. I also begun my professional engineering career as I completed two internships as a project engineer for Vell Canada and also Agroport Derrick Cooperative. As Saint Lucia progresses and continues to develop its industrial sector, there will be an increased demand for mechanical engineers. Indeed, it has been noted that there are far fewer mechanical engineers as compared to other engineering disciplines such as civil engineering. I intend to return home with a wealth of knowledge and expertise gained from my experiences abroad to assist in the expansion of our manufacturing industries. I also look forward to playing my part to assisting the mechanization of Saint Lucia's agricultural sector. Certainly, as a country, we must enhance our efforts at achieving food security. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has shown the glaring need for Saint Lucia to be increasingly self-sufficient. Agriculture is one area where we can achieve this within a short time. Progress within the agricultural sector will require a revamp of the archaic and traditional methods with an increased reliance on modern technology. The mechanization and revolution of agriculture will certainly assist in attracting more young people to the sector and ultimately lead to sustained economic development. As I proceed to further my academic and professional career in engineering, I want to encourage the youth and the wider Saint Lucia community to accompany me on this journey of excellence. Not only in engineering, but in the arts, medicine, sciences, entrepreneurship, whatever your passion may be, persevere to guarantee the realization of your dreams so we can all move forward together. Nuka ale duva are some celebrating our people. Happy 40-page independent Saint Lucia.