 Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen, please stand for the national anthem of St. Lucia followed by prayers Let us pray Have any father they go we just come before your throne of grace this afternoon your father because you are the alpha and you are the Omega dear Lord, we just thank you for allowing us to just gather head this afternoon your father We ask that everything will go according to your will your father We just ask that you bless these proceedings this afternoon your father We thank you for blessing us with Professor Lawrence and your father We just ask that he may be able to inspire these students their father. We ask that everything would just be great Your father. We ask that you just strengthen this agreement We're about to sign this afternoon your father that everything will go according to your plan dear Lord in your home that we pray Amen and Amen Please be seated Your Excellency the impolite louisie governor general emerita Your Excellency mr. Julian Dubois ambassador of diaspora affairs Your Excellency mr. Peter lancicle ambassador to Mexico, Venezuela the Bolivarian Alliance for our America Alba and the community of Latin America and the Caribbean states select members of the diplomatic corps Mr. Cletus Springer chairman of the board of governors of the south of Lewis Community College Dr. Keith nurse principal of the south of Lewis Community College Dr. Merle Sinclair or geese a vice principal of the south of Lewis Community College our distinguished guest Professor dr. Kato Lorenzen University of Connecticut and Mrs. Cynthia Lorenzen Dr. Merle Clark president of the st. Lucia Medical and dental Association managers academic heads and staff of the south of Lewis Community College students of the college family of dr. Kato Lorenzen Especially invited guest our online audience. Good afternoon It is my pleasure to be the host of our event today That will see the signing of an agreement between the south of Lewis Community College and To extend a very special welcome to dr. Lorenzen and his wife To our very scenic and historic campus, which we hope he gets to see later in the program Let me start by thanking mr. Glenn Henry for the performance of the national anthem and Mr. Dejean Charles for leading us in prayer To do the official welcome to this event I would like to invite principal dr. Keith news to the podium Good afternoon May I be permitted to relieve myself of my mask for the moment? Thank you. Thank you very much Natalie All protocols being observed I would like to quickly get to the purpose of our Session today or meeting today It is with great pleasure that I welcome you all to this event at the south of this community college All purposes to fold First we mark the signing of an agreement between the University of Connecticut Where professor Lorenzen is based and the start of this community college This for us is a significant opportunity For expanding our universe of partnerships and for that we are particularly Gratified that professor Lorenzen would have chosen to come and share in that way The second reason for our meeting this afternoon is to recognize Professor Lorenzen as an international scholar and an intellectual Who's made a stellar contribution to global knowledge particularly in the areas of biomaterials stem cell technology nanotechnology and regenerative engineering which I heard him speak about probably for a year and a half ago at an online Event that we had here in some closure. I was quite impressed back then and so when the chair Told me that professor Lorenzen was going to be on island I was very excited to finally meet him in person. I think professor Lorenzen Access a rule model for our students but also for our staff so that we can really reach For higher heights if you look at the agreement that we are signing It speaks to the opportunities in terms of the usual things Collaborations among staff Student exchanges and so on But it also speaks to the issue of establishing a Saint Lucia health sciences initiative. I Can't begin to tell you how delighted I am by that Because the health sciences is a growth area I think we only have to look at the experience of COVID and the growth of emerging diseases to recognize that We are in new in a new arena in terms of the global health scenario But the initiative also focuses on a wider range of things So for example one of the items is has the acronym jump Which means just us moving program. I would love to hear more about that But it also talks about a health cafe series and obesity physician Interactive educational program again really important because the Caribbean region has one of the highest profiles for non chronic chronic non-communical diseases in the world This agreement of cooperation affirms the value of international partnerships, which the college has been pursuing with much bigger in the last three years It will twin the two institutions particularly in the areas. I have identified and In this regard it will help us on our way towards Pivoting to university status And it's fitting that we are doing it in this part of the college, which is entitled the innovation hub Definitely professor Lorenzen's work will be well received at this location. Thank you very much Some of us a little bit challenged by height My apologies. I didn't say my name and when I started off My name is Natalie Julie Fannis and I am the senior communications officer with the South Lewis Community College So there's my introduction We do have a student down to perform for us but she needs to get some audio issues worked out and therefore in the meantime, we will move on to dr. Lorenzen's presentation and I would like for you to bear with me whilst I give him a needed introduction Dr. Lorenzen dr. Katie Lorenzen is professor of chemical engineering professor of material science and engineering and Professor of biomedical engineering at the University of Connecticut He was named one of the hundred engineers of the modern era by the American Institute of chemical engineers At its centennial celebration for his trailblazing work in the development of polymer ceramic Systems for bone regeneration Dr. Lorenzen received his BSC in chemical engineering from Princeton University his MD magna cum laude from Harvard Medical School and his PhD in biochemical engineering biotechnology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Where he was named the Hugh Hampton young fellow He is the CEO of the Connecticut Convergence Institute for Translation in regenerative engineering Named the world's foremost engineer physician scientist by the NAACP Dr. Lorenzen has received numerous awards recognizing his achievements and contributions to science including the spin-gam medal the highest award given by the NAACP the National Medal of Technology and Innovation America's highest Honor for technological achievement awarded by President Barack Obama and He is the first individual to receive the oldest and highest award of the National Academy of Medicine and the National Academy of Engineering He received the UNESCO Equatorial Guinea International Prize for research in life sciences For his work in regenerative engineering Dr. Keto Thomas Lorenzen has been awarded the St. Lucia Medal of Honor gold for eminent service Rendered in the field of science of medicine. Sorry regenerative engineering and live sciences internationally He's renowned internationally in Europe Africa Asia Dr. Lorenzen is an expert in biomaterials stem cell science Nanotechnology drug delivery systems and the field he founded Regenerative engine engineering. We are honored ladies and gentlemen to have dr. Lorenzen Atresas today, please welcome him to the podium Well, thank you very much. I'm going to be taking off my mask or my presentation and So good afternoon everyone It's it's really an honor for me to be with you today and let me just say That to start our our emcee is has been doing a wonderful job And and with that I can I can very proudly say all protocols have been observed But I would like to take a moment just to to thank her excellency Dr. Luisi for being here. I've I've admired you in your work for decades and it's True honor to to see you here today with us today let me also Provide as we say in in in Philadelphia a shout out to Ambassador Dubois who I've I've I have known the ambassador for About 15 years and he is as you he is as you see him. He's true he's warm intelligent and and has Been the person who's helped to arrange If not the person who arranged this week for me here and so I wanted to thank him so much for that And of course there are a number of other people I could mention I I would like to mention that I have my wife here my lovely wife Cynthia Lorenzen's travel with me and I have a sister and cousin here Joan Lorenzen and Marie Lorenzen Please raise your hand. We're here. Thank you so much For for being being here today, but there are so many and I don't want to spend all my time Thank you everyone in the room. So I just I'm just with all protocols observed. Thank you very much First, let me just say it's just such an honor for me to receive the st. Lucia Medal of Honor Gold it is something that is I believe is One of the highlights of my life and my career as you know I've been around the world and I've met many presidents premieres and in premieres and had a number of awards This marks this is an award that is very near to me because it comes from my home in my homeland But receiving the Medal of Honor is also an opportunity. It's an opportunity for me to Rededicate to those things that I've spoken about in terms of you know working with the the nation of st. Lucia I was with dr. Nurse when we addressed the Parliament. We didn't actually meet at that time. It was virtual but during that time I spoke of some programs and projects that I would like to see happen with st. Lucia and And the part that I could play in terms of working in this area that the three areas that are of importance are education and Building the educational environment and doing my part to as little as I can in terms of being able to help to move The area forward the second is as you know, I'm an orthopedic surgeon. I'm a sports medicine doctor take care of athletes especially athletes in boxing in other areas and I was very gratified to meet the head of the the Olympic Committee for st. Lucia the minister of sports and also the head of The head of boxing here at on the island and we've agreed to work together On some projects involving youth and sports And I think youth and sports is so or you're so important because my belief is that if we can build bio fitness and Resilience we build a stronger people and we build a stronger land And so that's the project and then that will be undertaking the third project as was alluded to Is a project working in terms of the health sciences and a commitment to helping to build the health sciences here in st. Lucia through a number of different ways One of the things that we like to do in terms of the research the work that we do is we not just do we do we do research? Yes, but we also Do action for instance the program that dr. Nurse talked about I'll mention right now is our jump program Which is just us moving program? We know especially in terms of st. Lucia and other countries in the Caribbean There are high rates of diabetes and other chronic illnesses that that can have can affect us We also know that we don't exercise enough as much and we don't have as many opportunities to exercise And so the jump program that we started about four to five years ago funded by the Etna Foundation in CVS So shout out to them has really been a program that we've worked in terms of communities of black and brown people to be able to address chronic diseases chronic non communicable diseases by exercise exercise Exercise programs and also proper dieting and these programs have actually had traumatic dramatic results in terms of decreasing levels of diabetes Increasing and also increasing physical fitness, and it's my hope that we can bring this jump program We've we've already named this program jump st. Lucia As a new program Thank you. Yes, great so I'm excited about the things that we're we're going to be able to do together and I when I approached our university president and our provost and our chair of the board and so this is very very important that we Create an alliance and an MOU to move forward. They were very very excited about doing so and That's why so we were able to so quickly formulate an MOU between our Universities and I say our universities because I know it's this we say it's a Arthur Lewis Community College But I can tell you right now within this decade This will be Sir Arthur Lewis University. I could tell you that So I look forward to to working in the years ahead with with the with Sir Arthur Lewis Community College Let me just say parenthetically the naming of this college is perfect I had the privilege of meeting Sir Arthur Lewis not to tell you how many years ago But I was I was in college then I was a college student at Princeton and Sir Arthur Lewis was this giant professor at At at Princeton, I think he was the first black professor at Princeton in history And I remember I called his office. I've said this story earlier this week I called his office and he said this is Sir Arthur Lewis You just you know the artist is good with Arthur Lewis then professor Arthur Lewis. You're an undergrad I was a sophomore He just doesn't see sophomore students and and I said, you know, I didn't see so he said said no You can't see him and I said, well, you know, I'm you know, I'm you know, my family's from st. Lucia I'm like my dad, you know grew up and he was born in Souffre So she said, well, wait a minute. Hold on. You didn't tell me that Let me get back to you and so I was on hold. Oh, so Arthur Lewis will see you of course Just let's make an appointment and you know in the next day I was I saw this great Sir Arthur Lewis and I still remember Parenthetically that you know when you meet really great people and you sit down I still remember coming to his desk and sitting down and it felt like the desk was like above my head And I was looking so I was looking way up at him but he was so gracious and so helpful and I've always taken that with me in terms of being able to approach students when young students wanted to come to see me But it also spoke to his commitment to st. Lucia and his commitment to the people of st. Lucia and the young people of St. Lucia and so it's so appropriate that the that that this institution is named is named for him named for this great man So in closing, I think I'm going to be doing we're going to be signed doing the mo you first and then I do a presentation Do the presentation after or after the mo Okay, I'm doing the presentation first. Okay, so let me do a brief presentation of on on my work and who I am and Perhaps give some information about my philosophy of life And so and I want to shout out to all the IT people who helped make this happen because It's it's never it's never easy and it looks like this is all going to work out So let me start with a little brief presentation on this So and this is the presentation is about this area that I've called regenerative engineering And so I work in this field It's called regenerative engineering and if we look at this field it started with something called tissue engineering about 40 years ago Which can be defined as the application of biological chemical and engineering principle to the repair restoration regeneration of living tissues Using cells materials and factors and I created that definition about 25 years ago, and it's been a pretty good definition But later the editors of science magazine Contacted me and said listening we've had read this area of tissue engineering for a number of years What's the future and in a piece in science magazine and science translational magazine? I define what would be a new field and I called this new field regenerative engineering and the regenerative engineering is really what is a convergence or bringing together of Areas that we didn't have 30 years ago that we have now for regeneration advanced material science and nanotechnology Work with stem cell science, which we do physics developmental biology and clinical translation for regeneration of complex tissues and This area you'll hear a lot about the word convergence Which means the coming together of areas and insights from approaches that come from different fields So we look for things that come from different fields that people weren't doing before and try to bring them together And so we really bring these areas together as there's a little that's a little new tan One of the things that we do is we study newts and salamanders and how they regenerate tissues And we try to bring those areas to be able to help in regeneration So I'm just to briefly just to review a couple things one thing we've started We we worked on with regeneration of bone and trying to create something that would fill a defect to regenerate bone We do a lot of our work in the animals That's actually an animal arm and rabbit arm where we actually can repair that and create this new bone for me That's the red area that's there, but we've also taken this into other areas We've actually defined new fields and new subfields One of the subfields that we've defined is is inductive materials We can take materials put it in the location and just make a tissue right off without any added materials And this is a this is our ability to create these inductive types of materials We can combine special materials special polymers special ceramics bring them together right in the right way and Implant them alone and we can create these areas where we can have these little microspheres worth which have the polymers This is new bone the red area of new bone. We can create these We could put stem cells on these areas the stem cells can make new bone And that's actually the green area is actually natural bone coming in. We've made engineered ligaments and we've created Ligaments for something called the ACL if you're an athlete, you know that the ACL is a very important ligament It controls motion acts as a stabilizer and you can get really bad injuries with these different areas So we created our new a new ligament from scratch if we engineer ligaments called the Lorentz and Cooper ligament because we're first ligament named after two black people and And it's it's a remarkable matrix and in ligament We can place it in rabbits and show how we can regenerate the tissue and rabbits and you know I have rabbits running around afterwards and this is where it looks like the tissue that looks that that looks great And so this ACL top technology won a big award with the With the orthopedic in orthopedics and Nicholas Andrew Ward It was named one of the top 50 achievements by scientific American in the year but I think the our greatest Acknowledgement of our work was when we when we were in the national geographic 100 scientific discoveries that changed the world and we were number 30 We were highlighted number 30 of the scientific discoveries that changed the world now to put you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you Now to put this in perspective number 85 was space travel and Number 15 was the cell phone So we're number 30, which I thought was you know just about right in terms of where we are So this area for generative engineering we've with our engineer ligament We've now placed these in humans and now we have over seven years of this being placed in humans as a Lorentz and you know Lorentz and Ligament Lorentz and Cooper ligament and as was alluded earlier so graciously We've been able to have some singular honors in terms of the work that we've been able to do in medicine and engineering and also in science I've received the Walsh McDermott Medal one of the oldest highest awards of the National Academy of Medicine The Simon Ramo Founders Award from the National Academy of Engineering Which is the oldest award of the National Academy of Engineering the Philip A. Abelson Award from the American Association for the Advancement of Science? Which is given for signal contributions to advancement of science in the United States And of course the big one for me is that getting the National Medal of Technology The National Medal of Technology and innovation which is the highest honor for technological achievement Thank you, and I was very honored to get it from from from President President Obama, so And so what's next? Well, you know this we think this area of regenerative engineering this this new field Which is not so new now. It's about 10 years old can really carry us to a lot of different areas We now have a textbook that I wrote on regenerative engineering. We have a journal regenerative engineering and translational medicine We have a meeting a scientific meeting every year called the rock stars of regenerative engineering sort of a cool name It's it's a small it's a meeting in which we bring lots of people together for like a day and a half Where we do intensive work and also we just have a new NIH training grant We just received a million dollars from NIH to train the next generation of people in this area of regenerative of regenerative engineering and And and also for change train only grad students, but also undergraduate students in the area We created a new society that called the regenerative engineering society and it's the first society built on this area that we call Convergence and it's a unique society number one the society. It's $20 under 20 It's $20 under 20 and so and we encourage young people So today I'm announcing that we will provide We will provide 200 free memberships To high school and college students here in st. Lucia for two years each This is a society that we say it's built upon democratization We want a society has principles of obviously conversions responsible science that we do great science and Democratization meaning inclusion equity. This is the first part of the first major society and started by a black person At least I think and so the point is that we want to see Large numbers of black people brown people being involved in this society and developing this new field And and you know in a way that promotes an anti-racism Anti-racist environment and so these are some of the principles of it in terms of moving forward So we are now part of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers They purchased us and now we're a community American of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers And that's our symbol and I'm very proud that the American Institute of Chemical Engineers Foundation has In recognition of the my founding this field has just created the Kato T. Lorenzen regenerative engineering founders award Which will be given out this this year in 2022. So it's very very gratifying to have that happen So so what's next from there? So what we've talked about in Hartford We've now talked about a University of Connecticut our next goal because we can now regenerate almost every tissue of the body You know every musculoskeletal skull with the shoe I talked about the bone I showed how we can make bone I talked about ligaments how we can make ligaments But now we can make nerves and blood vessels and all these different areas. So now we want to regenerate Lost limbs so I announced something called the Hartford engineering a limb project Where we're going to regenerate an entire leg by 2030 and that's our and we also called the heel project Hartford engineering a limb heel project to regenerate an entire limb by 2030 and so we're working on that right now We're making progress. We have our foot in the door, sorry But we really are planning to move this area forward and it's an exciting area, but we think that with our work and convergence advanced materials stem cell science physics developmental biology clinical translation we can bring about this happening now We've it's been it's been gratifying to see the recognition that we've already had I'm a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences I'm a now a member of the National Academy of Sciences the National Academy of Engineering the National Academy of Medicine and the National Academy of Ventures which represents the five academies the five major academies in the United States and I think I think I'm the only surgeon in history to be elected to For even it for the reverses even five of the academies are there there But in Europe this has been recognized by membership in the European Academy of Sciences The Royal Academy of Engineering the World Academy of Engineering and in Africa membership in the Academy of the National Academy of Senegal the net the African Academy of Sciences and also the Benin Academy of Sciences So the work that we're doing is really I think across the world has been recognized as being important In Asia a membership in as a fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences the Chinese Academy of Engineering The Indian Academy of Engineering and also the National Academy of Sciences India Just demonstrating the fact that this work has powerful implications not just locally at home, but really around the world One of the areas I'm most proud of probably because of the influence of St. Lucia has been receiving UNESCO Equatorial Guinea International Prize for Research in Life Sciences And I became the first person of America in St. Lucia descent to earn this award It took place in at at Addis Ababa at the African Union heads of state summit in 2020 And it's given to laureates who have been made significant efforts to scientific research toward improving the quality of human life I shared the award among others with to you you who is the first woman to receive the Nobel Prize from China And so it was great to be able to share to share that prize with her And I was nominated. I was nominated By the nation of St. Lucia to get this award So the goal again is to regenerate limb and this is what we're doing right now It's a multi-year multi-dimensional quest and it's it's for us to be able to redefine how we treat clinical disease Now I do some people say well, it's incredible. Is it going to be difficult? Yes It's just going to be difficult. I can tell you that right now But it's been said that you never know how strong you are Until strong is your only choice You never know how strong you are until strong is your only choice and this was actually said by Bob Marley So that leads me to the last part of my comments and that's the last part of my comments based upon My new book My book is called success is what you leave behind. I just published it two months ago. It's my autobiography I'm very very proud Actually took me about five or six years or maybe six or seven years to get done So it's a chock full of materials lots of great information that's there And I want to just share just a couple of things from that autobiography with you And it's it first it starts with the story of regenerative engineering and how I started the promise of it The reality the hope in terms of what the future is But then it also leads into a philosophy and talks about my philosophy that I've built over the years and to some of Some of the philosophy it a lot of it as a key to success is to be bold and and take chances in life I think it's really key to be bold and take chances not crazy chances You know not jumping off the Grand Canyon, but you but much measure you know measured chances in life I think you know make a difference another key is is Working on being smart working hard being a good person and being loyal these are very important characteristics that we need to teach and In view in terms into the young people to make sure that they are successful. I believe having courage is important I love the quote by Maya Angelou I believe that the most important single thing but beyond discipline and creativity Creativity is daring to dare And being adaptable being an adaptable person is very very key You know and people talk about Charles Darwin and survival of the fittest He actually didn't say that what he said is not the strongest that this survives It's not the most intelligent. It's actually the one that's most adaptable So being adaptable is so important and then being resilient and optimistic being resilient and optimistic It's very very important in terms of that and I like the Dalai Lama. I don't know him But I like what he says he's just choose to be optimistic because it feels better And so being optimistic becomes important in terms of in terms of life and then again We know Bob Marley and his great quote in terms of in terms of that But there's some other great quotes. I want to share with you One is what happens now Determines what happens to the rest of the world You have an ability to make change you have an ability to be the change and everyone in this room your work matters your lives matter and You have an ability to affect change at a large scale and the work that you do and this is from T'Challa Who knows about T'Challa? Raise your hand if you've heard of T'Challa Only two of you T'Challa you you you know T'Challa, right from Black Panther. That's his phrase The other quote and I'm gonna leave you with it just a two more two more quotes You know our quotes from President Obama, which I absolutely love He says keep exploring keep dreaming Keep asking why don't settle for what you already knows never stop believing in the power of your ideas Your imagination your hard work To change the world And he's also said we are reminded that in the fleeting time we have on this earth What matters is not as well or status or power or fame But rather how well we have loved and what small part we have made in making lives of people better That's from our Superman So I'm gonna close with a few of my my own personal thoughts Your mission in life What's your mission in life your mission life is number one have fun Because you know this is life and you should try to enjoy yourself and the things that you're doing And in every way you can and also your mission life is explore and to be curious and to go about life With a great deal of curiosity I teach people and teach my students look look at the end at the beginning Look at what you want to achieve for their life and dream high and look at what you want to achieve for the life That's the only way in which you'll be able to get something Get the highest points of life is to look at the end at the beginning look at what you want to achieve and Go for it now. There are three most important times of your life and The day you're born obviously that's easy That's the most important time the day you realize your life's purpose is the second most important time in your life And the third most important time is a day you're truly living your life on purpose So for the young people who are listening to me now those are the three important times the day you were born The day you realize your life's purpose and the day you are truly living your life on purpose So work hard to decide what your life's purpose is and then once you decide that pursue that Because when you're in the zone and the day that you really are truly living your life on purpose You you are there I Always tell people that there are tons of challenges that take place in your life to bigger the challenge the greater the opportunity So look for big challenges look for and don't worry about setbacks or problems like that Because that comes with taking on bigger big challenges My daughter who's a graduate Princeton this year very proud of proud of all three kids Has a favorite as it has a favorite a problem that I've given her that she loves and That proverb is to stumble is not to fall But to walk faster So don't be afraid to stumble on the way Don't be afraid to take on big challenges because those big challenges lead to great opportunities So just in closing again my book is success is what you leave behind You know fostering leadership, it's actually available on Amazon and finds a noble and where other fine books are sold and But I what I've decided to do is that To for St. Lucia is that we will place We will place a book in every single school in St. In library in St. Lucia and I do want to take an opportunity to thank someone that who's helping with this Obviously, we have our foundation the hell and I'm Morgan Lorenzen foundation that helped support this but But we were also being supported by dr. Alfred maize who is at the the boroughs welcome fund Which is a foundation in in the United States and they've been great You know supporters of the work that we're doing and so dr. Maize and boroughs welcome fund I want to publicly give them a shout out So again, I look forward to continued work in St. Lucia with you I am I am just so honored and humbled to receive the St. Lucia Medal of Honor and And on behalf of my my wife and also my family. Thank you so much for this great honor being with you today Dr. Lorenzen I was blown away when I read your biography But from listening to you, I feel like I'm in the presence of greatness. I think you are rock star And I think You are St. Lucia's new Superman. I truly hope you become that for our young people I don't want to pre-empt the chair in his clothes in remarks But I really want to thank you for sharing with us today Particularly your story with Sir Arthur Lewis Because I have been looking for someone who met Sir Arthur in person because we didn't have that privilege And I wanted to know what he was as a man as a human being because we just hear about his theories We hear all the things about him, but not those who encountered him And I think your story today really did something for me in understanding him as a person I want you to thank you for Declaring St. Lucia your homeland This is not a vote of thanks, but I couldn't let it pass And finally it's not finally, but I need to stop Let me thank you for your contribution significant contribution to preserving human life particularly through your your research And through sports that you mentioned earlier that too. I think is is very very important. So I'll stop here I hope my thanks really, you know Sing sin. I'm not obama, but um I think you know where I'm going. So ladies and gentlemen one more round of applause to Dr. Lawrence and Let me invite the respective parties for the signing of the memorandum of understanding with the University of Connecticut to Go to the table. I think it has been prepared by Dr. Lawrence and and he has made a part so chair and whilst the signing happens, we will have our performance by our student miss Melanie Richard Who is a science student by the way and we will have some photo ops with the students to Represent the donation that dr. Lawrence and will make so let me hand over to Melanie now Russian ships Minutes after they took I From the bottomless pit But mine was made long the almighty We fought in this generation Triumphantly Won't you help to sing This song's a freedom Because all our redemption song Emancipate yourself for mental slavery I'm no fee for atomic energy Because none of them can stop her the time How long shall they kill our profit just a part of it We've got to fulfill the book Won't you help to sing This song's a freedom Because all our redemption song Pate yourself for mental slavery None but I will mine I'm no fee for atomic energy Because none of them can stop her the time How long shall they kill our profits While it's just a part of it We've got to fulfill the book Won't you help to sing This song's a freedom Because all our redemption song redemption song redemption song Gentlemen, if you can just stay and let us get a real photo op Sure With all the attention focused on you now Thank you very much Melanie Dr. Lawrence and somebody something tells me we chose the right artist So the shaking hands we just want to get again to recognize The signing between the University of Connecticut and the Sir Arthur Lewis Community College So could each of you hold up an agreement Yes, I know y'all took some photos but And among the many things that I wanted to thank you for Dr. Lawrence in was declaring that Sir Arthur Lewis Community College will become a University College in 10 years Heads up with the handshake. Yes, Mr. Chairman. I'm sorry. I allowed you to take your seat. Can I now invite you to Deliver your remarks at this time. I feel Really good Being a solution today And I hope you feel as I feel as well I have heard many renditions of redemption song But one I just heard from this melody Richard really ranks right up there And and brought a tear almost To my eyes. So thank you very much Melanie and it's good to know that you are You are part of the The talent pool here at Sir Arthur Lewis Community College It's an honor a distinct honor and a privilege to welcome you Dr. K2 and your your family Your sister Jo and your wife Jo know him. I have not seen him in many many years Uh, we were raised in the same community of Marsha Antropo. So Um, it's good to see her again We are deeply touched By your double gesture You're offered to donate copies of your autobiography to some of our students And to our Hunter J. Francois library And you're offered to catalyze Functional relations between our college And your university Through the memorandum of understanding that we've just signed These gestures are not only timely They carry enormous significance for us They come at a time when our students in our college Could certainly benefit from a short in the arm no pun intended An injection of inspiration That fires up our collective imaginations To conceive the impossible That arms us with the ambition To make it happen To use once opined That imagination is the most essential piece of machinery we have If we are going to live the lives of human beings I consider that it is vital that our college And our entire education system Be one that unleashes the imagination of our people, especially our students And in reviewing your speeches I've come with one essential message That without imagination, there can be no discovery Seeing what everybody else has seen And thinking what nobody has thought This is what you have done And this is why we salute you Many years ago, one of my favorite television programs was the six million dollar man And I never thought there'd be a solution You know, at the cutting edge of creating a six million dollar man But you are well on your way to doing that And long may you continue to regenerate limbs and bones You know, there used to be a time when our childhood was anchored in discovery We were explorers We built familiarity with every square inch of our neighborhoods We invented substitutes For the things we did not have or could not afford We are seized on the value of our education system In nurturing this culture of imagination Discovery and invention And this is why we're particularly excited To have entered into a functional relationship with Yukon Which is classified as one of America's public Ivy universities And one of the best research universities in the world I was intrigued to learn that before the Second World War, Yukon was a state college Just like we are today So we walk in your footsteps at Yukon And we embrace the MOU that you've just signed As carrying us just as far as you have Of course, we don't have your three billion dollar budget Or your four hundred and eighty million dollar endowment fund At Yukon But we will take one of your books any day Over that So in closing, I wanted to also mention that we have An alignment with the Vaughan Allen Lois Institute for research and innovation And the Valyri Which is connected to this college And we would love to deepen the engagement between this institute and Yukon as well In addition to what you have set out to do So in closing, I want to thank you for your presence I thank your family, your dear wife Sister and cousin I want to thank all of those who made this event possible I want to thank James Caliopa, our Governor-General and Meritor Who is almost like a silent principal In our midst, she takes our interests very, very seriously And we thank her for that I want to thank Ambassador Dubois I've never come across a man who responds to an email as promptly as Ambassador Dubois And I want to thank you so for making this possible My good friend Ambassador Peter Lansico of Bacafai In Castries Not too far removed from Ghana Street where I was raised So good to see you So our thanks to NTN for making the livestream possible And a final thanks to our amazing team From the marketing and communications department Of our college, Tracey George, Nathalie Jonas-Fanis And our cameraman, Com Champlain Who led us in prayer So I thank you all for coming I thank you again, Professor Kato And I look forward to your continued support As we build this college into the university it is meant to be Thank you very much Thank you very much, Mr Chairman And let me just extend that thank you Parts of the marketing team There is a whole team that works together with us at the college And I want to take the opportunity to recognize Ms. AP Fana-Lewis, Ms. Dora Henry, Ms. Dan Theo-Joseph Ms. Kathy McDymond Who all make this possible So Dr. Lawrence, you have pledged to give your books to all libraries in St. Lucia And to young people So as a symbolic gesture I would like to invite the science students who are present here today As well as the librarian who's representing the Hunter J. Faswa Library To come forward to take a photo with you As a pledge of your commitment to ensure that they get their books So I'll be sending you that big Come forward students So we have a student of engineering Chemistry and Cape program, science department And Jaden is chemistry And Jade is engineering And we have the librarian And we have the science lecturers coming to ensure We have Dr. Felix from environmental science Mr. Favrier from science and technology Is Dr. Regis here Dr. Regis Andrew from our health sciences Ms. Nita from our Cape program That offers the pure sciences So you see how many books you have to give just at St. Lucia Thank you so very much Hold on, I'm sorry Oh, so a quick move I didn't even realize they had the mask There's a three-second rule there Thank you so much Science lecturers, the librarian Mrs. And Dr. Lorenzen I will not have you exercising So I will just ask you to remain here We have a very small presentation To make to you a small token of our appreciation For taking time to be here with us today And for sharing again your wonderful inspiring story And for initiating this agreement With the University of Connecticut So Vice-Principal, Dr. Meryl Sinclair Or Geist will now make this presentation to you So the plaque reads The South Alois Community College Presented to Dr. Kato Lorenzen In recognition of your stellar contribution To global knowledge South Alois Community College One Fortune Castries, 14th March, 2022 And Mrs. Lorenzen Since your husband ensured that he recognized you We would like to present you with a small token of Just being here, thank you for being here That was Mrs. Tracy George Our Senior Advancement Officer My team has another presentation to make I believe it is to our two ambassadors Who represented here today And made this happen So can I invite Ambassador Peter Lansko And Ambassador Dubois For some small tokens And to thank them very sincerely For keeping Sir Arthur at the forefront Of their actions Ladies and gentlemen We've come to the end of our ceremony today It was indeed a pleasure being your host And of course meeting you Dr. Lorenzen I hope we get to speak a little more at the end Our excellent saxophonist who entertained us earlier Will close us off And yes please give him a round of applause I don't think that we had Again let me just reiterate The Chairman's thanks to NTN for coming on board With the last minute request to have this live stream And it means now You can always revisit the YouTube page To watch it again And please share it With as many young people as possible And with all citizens of St. Lucia So that they too will be inspired by Dr. Lorenzen's presentation So thank you so much for joining us here this afternoon Continue to be safe In whatever you do We're signing out from our live presentation this afternoon Thank you so much